CN Halo ME: Ascension
by Evident Disaster
Summary: Cancelled
1. Chapter 1

Introduction: An ED Production…

(I did full B**** rewrite for this, I hope it does better.)

UCAF

United

Colonial

Alliance

Forces

-Arcturus Station-

The profiles of five candidates appeared on a holographic projector, each one displaying name and origins.

A feminine voice came from the darkness of the room known as ONI.

"Let us begin."

A file appeared of the first unit.

A young man clad in modified Marauder armour appeared, the yellow and khaki coloured scheme made him look more military than civilian.

MXV-Unit 1015- Marauder generation 3 Name: Jovi, orphan, survivor

"His entire unit was killed on the Akuze recon mission, but he managed to kill most of the thresher maws with just his bare hands, the young soldier was supposedly traumatised for life."

"His background covers that he was an orphan, living on the streets of Anomia, he definitely knows how to handle himself, doesn't he?"

"Do we need someone like that for the Spectres?"

"We shall see if he can prove himself the title, and then we shouldn't have any problems with allowing him on the team."

The next image arrived, this time of an older looking teen, albeit he did have white eyes and white hair wearing a black and blood red armoured figure, the young man looked far more than just intimidating.

CCXV-Unit 215- Vindicator G3 Name: Dominic, born soldier, hero

"Dominic saved the colonies of Tan from the Blitz, he was awarded the Nova star and was granted as guardian of a younger quarian child, she resides on Au Vannoch, he is still considered a major hero, and many look to him for aspiration."

"Yes but look at him, his record shows that he is too close to the quarian people and their goals of returning to their home world of Rannoch, but even if he chooses to accept our offer, he's still tangled in their mess."

"Which is why we need him, a voice of the quarian people will help, especially since our last efforts."

CLXV- Unit 0165- Reaver G3 Name: Alexis, adopted, assassin

"Alexis zero-one-six-five, the female member of the Reaver third, she has proven her worth and skill on Advent and Wei, she removed the old covenant loyalists with ease, and helped deal with the pirates on Wei with just herself, though she has similar records to that of Dominic."

"How can we let her join her record is completely hidden and what could you think of a daughter of the…"

"NOT here, Udina, there may be voices listening, as true as being the daughter of Ether, we cannot be choosy as to whom receives the position."

"Fine, if you need her."

The next image appeared a blue armoured soldier with grey hair, he looked almost ethereal like, his skin much like snow, and his face was handsome with soft green eyes.

CCLXV- Unit 0265- MA-EVA-G5 Name: Ian, alien raised, pilot

"Ian zero-two-six-five, the youngest of the candidates, the first crossbreed of human and asari, he is truly an astounding feat of gene engineering. Unit has also a sister but she's another option, Ian was the best of the best, he is the only one to have successfully destroyed a cruiser and twenty stations."

"Yes as colourful as his history is, can we trust him? The asari public still is in the dark about his existence and he is only fifteen, his sister is over 30 and she's a hybrid as well."

"The asari appreciate our effort in dealing with their 'demon' issue, and we do provide them with the best in gene therapy, and the turians as hateful of our creations and creativity, still admit that we made the best cure for their ailments. The salarians appreciate our ability to advance fast, but they fear we might end up replacing them in the long run."

The image cleared up and another image came, this time of a blue skinned female, she had her ears in a more depth of her cranium and her hair looked slightly stringy, in any other sense she looked asari but possessed specific gene traits of her family.

Alliance Forces: Name: Selena

Species: Asari/Human

Age: 31

"So the daughter of unit 0159, the famous pilot who survived using the HRUNTING Mark I and the MA-EVA. Whoever knew that he would marry that asari? Well it's isn't as though we could ever change what has happened, is she a viable candidate?"

Hackett spoke up.

"She is, we tested her skills, she's more than capable, she survived ten years in the field and most of her instructors believe she has definite promise."

ONI ONE

"I agree, and of course having a human asari hybrid on the team will surely increase public attention, another step for us to gain a seat."

"Well I have no objections, I will agree, but I must ask for a full psych check before letting her in." Udina said his tone did betray a small amount of doubt.

The final image was of a brown haired woman with a hairstyle that spiked at the back and went around the front of her face; she was beautiful in any sense and looked more like a woman who should be a model rather than a soldier.

ALPHA-0019-NAME: Ellen H Shepard

AGE: 21

GENDER: F

RANK: XO (Commander)

Facial and bodily structure:

HEIGHT: 189cm

EYES: Green

SKIN: Hazel

HAIR: Redish Brown

BACKGROUND:

Colonist: Family was murdered by Covenant Loyalists during the PURGE: Classified

War Hero: Joined operation: CASCADE: Killed Batarian leader and destroyed main base of operations.

KILLS: 589

"She is still the best the alliance has to offer, and probably more considering she is the child of Fred himself."

"I couldn't agree more, the child of the Legendary Spartan himself would make anyone walk away in fear."

"And she has the highest record for friendly fire on those of the ODST teams she was assigned to." Hackett added he was chuckling in the background.

"Well let's just hope for her future husband, they don't have any issues."

XXXXX

Shepard looked out her window watching the world of Anomia below, she had been summoned by the Alliance Vanguard, and she knew only those prestigious enough to warrant an escort had to be very important.

Unknown to her was the powers that were now in play.

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CH1

This is the original chapter 1

Walk the line…

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BEGIN

Arcturus Station

The open expanse of space seemed endless and the opportunities in the galaxy were vast, but in Nova Stratus the port of Arcturus gave the options of getting ones way in life.

The seamless coloured armour plating and mass took up the view of any incoming vessel, the station in all its glory shined like it had 30years ago, and it still does to this day.

Hundreds of thousands of ships went past the station to wherever destination of the mass relay, the reason for the station was to ensure the safety of the public, Arcturus served as a military outpost and a critical access point to Nova space and the outer colonies.

But inside the depths of space along Anomia, the Normandy came flying past at the speed of light and slowing down from its maximum flight; it had just finished its warm up, and proceeded to the relay.

Inside a buzz of people went about the new stealth ship, it cool black and white armour plating made it look almost invisible to the outside, and the resonating armour of light kept the ship glowing, ever since departure from Anomia shipyards.

The Normandy came about past the Agar ship yards the place of its first production, the world itself was a massive ship yard, created by the forerunners and forgotten until the covenant war, since then it was used to produce the hundreds of thousands of vessels, and it still does.

The orange world with rings went by, and the Normandy continued its approach to relay 314, carefully navigating through the stream of ships the Normandy cleared itself for the acceleration.

Inside the stealth frigate a figure walked to the cockpit, Ellen Shepard walked past the consoles and stood back in her black and red armour with the N1 insignia, the proud hawk and sword of Anomia, she watched as the ship finally accelerated into the relay.

"Ignition sequence check, inflight systems check, all pre-flight navigations are set, and we are just drifting under 100mm." Joker said looking at the display.

"Excellent, I will inform Captain Anderson of our progress." Nihlus said walking past Shepard.

As soon as he left, Joker said. "I hate that guy."

Jane and Kaiden along with the other co-pilot looked at him.

"He just said the jump was excellent and you hate him?" Kaidan asked.

"Learning to ride a bike, that's excellent, but flying the most advanced stealth frigate in this side of the galaxy and hitting a target as small as a pin head, that' awesome like pie, and besides, spectres are trouble, call me paranoid."

"You're paranoid mate." The co-pilot said in an Australian accent.

"The council helped fund this joint military project along with the new covenant; they have every right to keep an eye put on their assets."

"Yeah well the covenant weren't trying to annex us now were they thirty four years ago." Joker replied.

"Yes, but they were trying to annihilate us before then, and trust me on this, we should be thankful for that."

The intercom activated. "Anderson the Joker, what's our eta?"

"Green captain, we just went through the relay, we'll be arriving soon."

"Good, is Commander Shepard there?"

"Here captain." She said.

"Come and meet me in the com room in a few moments, I'll be right along with the others."

The intercom went off.

"The captain sounds a bit agitated." Ellen said.

"Yeah I guess you should go commander, we have things here."

"Yeah see you." Joker said.

Shepard left for the com room, along the way, she spoke with Jenkins and Chakwas, though they did help with the history of the ship and crew, they didn't really explain much about the other operatives except the hero of the Blitz who was on board.

Finally entering the large conference room, she could see a table and where all the seating arrangements were, a dozen seats and half of which were occupied.

The six stood up to greet her and Nihlus who was waiting welcomed her.

"Greetings commander, looks like you made it in time."

"Who are all these people?"

Jovi decided to explain.

"Ma'am, were your team, or should I say team members, we were chosen for you as well as part of the spectre selection program."

"Selection program, you mean this is an evaluation and test?"

Nihlus said. "Exactly, we asked for a list of viable candidates and we were given you and your fellow soldiers."

The half asari said. "Actually I'm part of L1 security not a marine."

"Right still as soldier though, I'm sure the asari people would be welcoming you as one of the most unique Selena."

The male with pale skin who looked surprisingly human and something more, added. "I am also sure that they would be quite surprised, about the two of us, sir."

"I'm sure they would Ian, now I'm positive you are wondering about your mission?"

Anderson came down to greet them, and all of them came to salute.

"At ease soldiers, I came here to brief you all, Nihlus tell them."

A picture on the holographic display came up with the planet Eden Prime.

"As you must know this is not an simple milk run errand, over three days ago, a group of scientists conducting a dig on Eden Prime discovered a prothean beacon inside the wreckage of a once standing forerunner site, it was discussed as a necessary point of interest."

Shepard had read about the protheans a long time ago, it had been stated that the race was wiped out by a great dark force in the past when the forerunners died out, but many scientists disapproved the Ascendants claims as sheer superstition.

One of the other candidates asked.

"Sir, do we expect resistance in taking the artefact?"

"No what we needed to do is just recover it."

"Then why all the secrecy for such a simple mission, the alliance forces didn't even think that this could have such an effect, and no one is stupid enough to go against the alliance forces."

Nihlus was not as confident in their protection for some odd reason.

"As powerful as your army's maybe, there are plenty of species who could just as easily take the beacon out of the alliances grasp, which is why we are being sent in."

"I can understand that the hierarchy was not as welcoming to humanity but words will do you no good without action as I can see." Shepard said.

XXXXX

Eden Prime

Orbital station 1

"Sir, I'm receiving contacts at L1-5, they do not match any known description on sensor scans, do we classify as hostile?" An ensign asked the station commander.

"Take every precaution, we don't know who they are, but better to be safe than sorry." The commander said remembering Harvest.

The station went to alert status 3 and all the fighter pilots and ships began forming at the defence point.

As far as military restrictions go, the defensive forces of the militia were very powerful, they constantly recruit from the population to ensure future safety of the people, and provide fleet resources to defend their worlds.

The planet was also alerted and many civilians began making their ways to safety shelters, they always listened to their neighbouring instructors to take calm when in an alert status.

In the faraway lands near the dig site, a town was alerted as the approaching fleet came.

XXXXX

"Sir unknown contacts have changed course they are on approach from lunar orbit, I detect one large ship three kilometres in length and more than three dozen other vessels ranging from frigates to cruisers."

"Alert command and all neighbouring fleets to converge here, we're at alert status 1, code red."

The dozens of ships poured out of FTL and began their assault on to the defensive fleet, the UCA forces began firing first as they accelerated into combat, but with only one cruiser and four frigates, they were heavily outnumbered.

Hundreds of fighters swarmed out of the fleet and engaged the unknowns, the battle started to only just intensify.

XXXXX

Normandy eta 30 minutes

"Sir we are receiving a distress call from Eden Prime, you need to see this." Joker said over the com.

The marines looked to the display with Nihlus and Anderson.

And explosion followed by gunfire, a person stood up and started firing, her voice yelling orders, other soldiers also firing at the unknowns, but the camera wouldn't face the enemy contacts.

A few more minutes followed until a screeching noise, the camera turned to face the incoming vessel and like a wave of darkness the screen went dead.

"That's it sir, it cuts out after that, we also received a level one alert from the fleet about unknown contacts."

Anderson and Nihlus were both unsure about what had happened but they needed to get there.

"Joker, what's our eta?"

"Another twenty minutes, sir."

Anderson faced Shepard and the team.

"Alright commander, you and the team will be sent in via drop, we have support teams and as many troops loaded and ready to deploy, I want you and Alpha team to drop in and secure that beacon, understood?" Anderson said.

"Understood, sir, Alpha will make the drop."

"Let's move out people." Shepard said.

XXXXX

Eden Prime

Drop point Alpha

As the Normandy came over the burning plains, the ship lowered itself into an open area and let the marines down onto the drop deck.

"Sir, we are ready to depart, I already have Dominic and Alexis ready to go scouting ahead."

"Good, the mission is yours Shepard, make sure to get the beacon and secure it from the unknowns."

"Sir yes sir."

Nihlus arrived to the deck as well, checking his MA7A, a much low powered variant than that of the alliances MA9C, for good reasons.

"Nihlus, are you heading down with us?" Dominic asked.

"No, I'm going to go scout ahead, I'm better on my own any way."

"You sure you don't need support, it isn't a good idea to-."

Nihlus jumped off into the wilderness, he didn't hear the last sentence.

"Well looks like our stop, see you sir." Shepard said jumping off.

"Good luck." Anderson said to himself.

XXXXX

On the ground the team of seven walked about, Jenkins was here to see his home, just not in ruins; he was horrified at the wanton destruction of his home land.

"Ma'am, do you want us to follow up on Nihlus?" Dominic asked.

"Yes, make sure he doesn't get killed, we still have a job to do, and we'll meet up at the port, and go on from there."

"Yes ma'am, heading out." Dominic said while Alexis seemed completely quiet.

Something about her being a telekinetic and psi user made Shepard wonder about the younger woman's past.

Hurrying along with her team of five they made their way over to the path, watching for any ambushes or traps, they covered the distance, and nothing seemed to fill their minds either than shooting the bastards that were responsible for the attack.

"Jenkins, move up with Jovi." Shepard ordered.

The two nodded and began carefully, they did pause to see if there was anything ahead, and taking a look in his scope Jenkins looked about, he saw nothing strange.

He stepped out of cover and just a few feet ahead…

"LEROY!" Shepard yelled.

The other candidates had much enhanced hearing and such installed and knew that there was something around the bend.

But unlike that of Leroy Jenkins, he never saw it coming.

Five assault drones appeared in an ambush formation and began tearing into the soldier, his shields buckled and his ODST ablative armour buckled, some rounds tore into his lower torso and sprayed his blood out.

The team quickly returned firing, taking two drones shields down, Ellen could see that these drones were made for heavy combat; no one else had advanced enough shields to withstand a barrage from Spartans.

The fire fight only lasted a few moments as the marauder Jovi tossed an anti-tank mine into the fight, the explosion was powerful enough to shake the ground 500m in every direction but it had the desired effects, with a bit of overkill.

"Area is clear ma'am." Jovi declared.

Ellen went to check on Leroy, his pulse was still there but large amount of blood loss.

"Normandy we have man down, I repeat man down we need med-transport now."

"Roger that, med transport is en route."

Shepard and the team had to leave the young marine behind with bio-gel in his system; hopefully he should recover once aboard the Normandy.

As far as how Spartans went, Alpha team were mostly Spartan V descendants and were just more capable of doing their job than others.

"Let's get going we need to rally with Nihlus." Shepard said.

They cut across the grounds and fast, many of the small assault drones were dealt with quickly, and others much like them started appearing, rocket drones started their assault and began trying to hamper the team's efforts.

But still they broke as quickly as they were made.

It was not until they reached a slope, a soldier in clad green armour that took shape to her body started running, her shields flared as she took damage, it was not until the fourth hit she rolled on her back and fired at the drones.

Both exploded and landed in pieces, she got up to watch a fellow colonist being impaled by walking flash lights, the humanoid walking machines were tall and slender, they looked like quarians, but they possessed a more armoured figure.

Seven of them came at the marine who was now hiding.

Ellen and her team took up flanking positions as the hostiles made their way over, she and the team took aim.

And three hostiles went down; the remaining four took to the surrounding cover while the largest in the group suddenly vanished.

'Active camouflage? No, this is different, they don't have covenant tech.' She thought.

Jovi was also the one to notice the sudden disappearance of the unit, and looked for a shimmer, instead he found an outline of displaced light, it was relatively easy to spot, unlike most cloaking tech the alliance and covenant had.

He fired half of his clip until the walking stealthier was on the floor spilling out its plasma fluids.

"That's another one down." Jovi said.

The remaining robots fell to the combined fire of the team.

Ellen walked over to the exhausted marine.

"Sargent Ashley Williams's ma'am, I was part of the first colonial defence forces stationed here on Eden Prime." She said with a salute.

"At easy soldier, can you tell us what happened?"

She fidgeted as she explained.

"We were securing the beacon when fleet com told us that hostiles were on approach, we had everything instead set down and took a defensive position along the entire region, the geth then started pouring in."

"Wait, geth? I thought that they were behind the Perseus Veil?"

"That's exactly what we thought until we ID them through defence network HQ, which stated them as geth, they have large numbers and amassed a large enough fleet to strike at us."

"So we got ourselves a real fight on our hands?" Jovi said looking about at the remains.

"Don't get excited Spartan, the Fenris Wolves do that."

"Right ma'am."

Ellen turned her attention back to the sergeant.

"Do you know where the beacon is?"

Ash turned to face the Far East above the point of the structure in the distance.

"Just head that way until you hit a ridge, there should be a base camp from there and you just follow the road until you hit the transit station."

"Are you capable enough to come along with us sergeant?" Ellen asked.

"Just fine, I needed to get back at those flashlight heads for my platoon, ma'am." Ash said.

"Good, we'll be heading there, get locked and loaded."

Ash grabbed her assault rifle and her secondary heavy weapon, a grenade launcher and TLD (target laser designator).

"Let's move people."

XXXXX

The next few minutes were fighting the remaining geth in the region and securing the original dig site.

Shepard and the team met some resistance at the dig site, but they were dealt with quickly, though the hunters as they were identified were far more troublesome, Shepard had to duck on more than one occasion to avoid being hit.

Ash explained that the beacon was previously located there, but it must have been moved to another location, Dominic responded by telling them the beacon was moved to the transit port over the ridge.

"Let's move we don't have time to waste." Shepard said.

The team quickly and hastily followed up the hill into the camp site where the previous inhabitants had once lived, the scientists were almost nowhere to be found, except the few unfortunate ones impaled on the long pikes.

That was until the pikes slowly drew down and the bodies became active.

"My god they're still alive, what did the geth do to them?" Ash said horrified.

"Ash I don't think they're alive anymore, and also I might add, you might want to shoot them." Ian said before opening fire on the five cybernetic figures.

The bodies rushed at them, waving their arms in a vain attempt to harm their shields, though there was one odd looking husk, it had a type of cylinder like arm that glowed.

A small blast of energy seemed to surprise the team, Shepard's shields flared as the impact from the blast took her shields down a few notches.

"Damn." She said before putting in a dozen rounds through the husk.

The bodies were left strewn across the field, and left there to rot.

"What the hell was that?" Ash asked Ellen.

"Looks like some kind of adaption, I think it was power generated by the pike that changed the bodily structure, and in total the body became capable of containing and holding such energy."

Jovi said examining the body; he had a PHD in xeno-biology and a full teaching from the Anomia first university on the multiple species in existence and on how to treat venoms.

(This explains the origins of the Reaper guards.)

"Not to call me a bit queasy, but that was F***** up." Ash said.

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(This is Eden Prime for now.)

I do hope you guys can review.


	2. Chapter 2

CH2

Duck, duck, 'Goose'

Sorry for the late update…

XXXXX

Transit station

Watching over the area Dominic and Alexis watched as their Spectre ally Nihlus made his way at to the station, he continued down until he came into the view of a friend.

"Saren? What are you doing here?" Nihlus asked his posture relaxing slightly.

"I came when I heard of the attack; I thought you might need help." Saren said.

The turian walked about, Nihlus was just noticing as he said.

'Help… What? How did he know?' He thought at the planning, no one was supposed to have known about the mission, and Saren wasn't supposed to be there.

"Don't worry; I'll take care of everything." He said a clicking sound followed.

A gunshot followed, and the pistol in Saren's hand emptied itself into the fellow spectre, Nihlus didn't see it until it was too late, the round entered his lower ribcage and another through his torso, and he collapsed.

"Goodbye friend." Saren said the pistol about to end him.

'CRACK'

Saren's shields detonated and he was thrown to the ground, he managed to crawl away before another volley was able to land a hit.

Dominic swore to himself, he thought he had a clear line of fire, but thanks to the overshield worn by Saren the bullet only made it 75% through and stopped at his inner protective field, if he wasn't a spectre he would have died at that instant.

Another pull of the trigger and the bullet glanced his feet, Dominic was an expert marksman but only when the target decided to stay in one spot, and Saren wasn't going to wait for him to prove that point.

Dominic watched as Saren managed to escape around the bend outside the scope of his linear sniper rifle, he watched as a group of geth suddenly appeared to confront them.

He decided to take out the immediate threats; if he couldn't hit Saren then he'd wipe the deck with his cannon fodders.

XXXXX

Shepard followed was followed closely behind by the rest of her team, they had managed to reach their designated location, the position where Dominic and Alexis had reported in from, as the team came closer, they could hear the sounds of gunshots and rifle fire.

The ridge there was in a good position to provide cover as the team arrived, Shepard took to the ramp way that was placed there to move crates and equipment, and she took out her long rifle and took aim at the geth below.

Ian and Selena both activated their biotic powers and brought their enemies out, while Jovi began his close combat exercises with the other geth in the rear of their lines.

In the time it took for the team to arrive, the area was starting to be overwhelmed by geth; about 25 came to greet her team of seven, as they began chewing down the numbers.

Though it didn't take a genius to know that 25 versus 3 Spartans and 2 hybrid asari and 2 humans with combat training wasn't good odds, they suffered heavy losses as Shepard and the rest of her team began sniping and gunning them down.

Shepard using her adrenaline rush fired upon five in the corner of her vision with her MA9C and tore three apart and crippled the other two, while she was being covered by Ashley.

Ian used his lift to bring most of them out of cover while his sister Selena used pull to drag them closer to their line of fire, Dominic and Alexis both sniped the mid-air geth as they helplessly floated about.

"Got em, area is now clear." Dominic said as he checked his sights.

The area was empty save for the destroyed remains of the geth, Shepard looked over some to make sure they had destroyed all the remaining stragglers that had somewhat managed to survive the fire fight.

The team quickly made their way over to where Nihlus was, Shepard brought her medical scanner over the wounds, and started applying bio-gel and neural-stimulators to keep him alive, the read outs showed a 40% degradation in his health but that soon stabilised as the meds took hold.

"Normandy we have a man down, Nihlus has taken damage to torso, heavy loss of blood, sustained tissue damage from point blank fire." She said in a calm tone.

"Right commander, we're sending in pelican to your location." An ensign replied.

In the time the drop ship arrived with med evac the team had already left, there was a medical transponder and inhibitor for Nihlus' wound so they didn't need to wait, the mission was a priority.

XXXXX

Shepard managed to clear the station as they made their way to the platform, the interesting thing they noticed was the large ship that possessed a squid like form departing from the world, she and her team took note of it.

Ashley was surprised as they massive vessel took off from the planet, but something didn't seem right, a vessel such as that would have been reported by the UNSC to the UCA or any of the ONI branches, something didn't add up.

Shepard cleared the last of the bombs with her Nova- tool, she had quickly done so while hammering buttons between shooting the geth, and it had succeeded but took a staggering amount of time to complete the set tasks.

And now arriving to deal with the task of securing the beacon that the UCA had been pressured for, she reached down a flight of stairs that had once been guarded by the geth; Alexis had gone ahead and removed them for the team.

But something didn't seem right; the geth had been thrown about, dents and impact areas, the mess of wires from being thrown or being blasted. None were seemingly done by gunfire just sheer power, Alexis…

"Shepard, the beacon is active." Ian said with surprise.

She looked at the glowing object before her, it seemed to emanate a green and yellowish light, it didn't look like anything from the forerunners but merely alien. She began checking her com and calling the Normandy all the while the team secured the area.

"Shepard to Normandy, we have the beacon, being the ship down for immediate retrieval.

"Roger that Shepard pelican is on route." The Normandy AI replied.

"Shepard!" A voice yelled.

She turned to see that one of her marines had gotten caught in the field that the object was emanating. She quickly used all her strength and ran forwards, grabbing Ash; she tossed her out of the way.

"Shepard!" Ashley called.

The team was gathered but they could only watch as she was lifted up and in that time she could hear the calls of her allies.

But in her moment of trance she felt the universe colliding in her head, the screams of people and the smell of death. It began to show the images of a war, a terrible war, like no other, it seemed to remind her of the human covenant war, but this was far different.

In the images she could hear another voice, apart from the dying, it was calling her.

"Child of the heavens, you must look for us." The voice said.

'What?'

The images changed a different one, it was of a place with buildings and ruins, it was like Advent, but different. The many statues of the beings that lived there, they looked at her with cold blue eyes, and then the world around her glowed red, it became a haze of blood.

And then she felt nothing…

XXXXX

A throbbing pain suddenly shot up and she sat up awake.

"Shepard take it easy, you just had a traumatic experience." A kind male voice said.

"George, I think Chakwas can handle this, you should go and check on Jenkins." Ash said.

"Right then." He said moving off.

Another voice came about, more feminine, and much smoothing voice. "Good to see you awake commander, how do you feel?"

"I've had better days." Shepard replied.

"So I see." She said taking note.

Ash decided to interject. "We brought you aboard when the blast knocked you out, though we couldn't figure out what happened."

"I can't say myself Ash."

Chakwas added. "Well from what I have gathered, you've had a hyper stimulated amount of beta waves and a strange residual energy not based on any known source. But in total you've been in a hyper state of dreaming." She explained.

"Well, the dreams that you mentioned weren't as good as you could tell. It was vivid and rushed, and slightly in pieces, but there were parts that got my attention."

"What kind of parts?" The doctor asked.

"A place much like the Advent circle, you know the birth place of the Inheritor, but the place in my dream was a mix of destruction." She said.

"Well I better file this in my report." Chakwas said.

At that very moment the med bay doors opened and Captain Anderson walked in, his posture as strong as ever, but with concern on his face. He looked to the sergeant and asked.

"Ashley, could you wait outside?"

"Sir." She said before walking off.

"Chakwas, how's our XO holding up?" He asked.

"Perfectly fine, she's all yours, I'll be outside filing my report." She said.

A moment after Chakwas exiting the med bay Anderson asked. "How have you been?"

"Better, sir, I can't say that the mission though was a success." She said drearily.

"No it wasn't, Nihlus is in an emergency bio-tank, and his systems aren't to recover for another week. The council is demanding an explanation, and the geth have returned without a reason."

"Well at least we know who was responsible." She said.

"You mean the images from the sniper footage of Dominic? That won't cut it in the council's eyes, Saren is one of their best Spectres, if he's gone rogue then it's only a matter of time, but the council will cover for him."

"Which is why we need a way to get to him fast, and only Nihlus can do that, but when he gets back on his feet."

"Saren will be long gone, and we will have no way to track him." Anderson finished.

"What do we do sir?" She asked.

"Not much, we can only find a way to pull him out of hiding, show him for what he is, and then we might have a chance."

"What about the geth?"

Pacing about he explained. "The UNSC will be following up, the entire colonial sector will be gearing for war, and Eden is still repelling the geth, they predict a victory by tomorrow."

"That fast?" She asked leaning on the medical bed.

"The colonial marines thank god for them, though not all the colonies have major forces. It will take time, just like the blitz to get the necessary troops there." He explained.

"Well, what about the UCA and the Ascendants?"

"They'll be joining the war effort soon, and very soon I might add, the UCAF have deployed the entire fleets of the 1st to the 11th, and then they're going to send out the new 25s."

"They're deploying the new twenty five kilometre super carriers? Are they sure that's necessary?"

"We're at war again, and the colonies can't be stopped, even if the council threatens the UCA, it's only one faction and they are the major military power of the entire galaxy." He said.

"Well I can see that, but isn't the Perseus Veil a no go?"

"They can't stop the UCAF from attacking, even if they say it will only escalate, the colonies want to be safe so, they'll agree to a full scale invasion." He said.

"What about the Covenant? Are they going to join in?"

"Now that is different, they want to join the protection of the colonies as well, as a shared interest, but they're going to hold most of their fleet back, they'll definitely bolster the ships at the Sigma Relay."

"That's good to hear, so what else do we need to know?"

"Well I'll receive the update on your medical condition from Chakwas, but I need to know, what was it that you saw when the beacon activated?"

Shepard paused then. "Well, I'm not sure, death, destruction, then a pause, some strange lights appeared in the darkness, and then it changed when… I don't know it changed quickly again, it reached a pause though. A place I identified as the Advent Circle, it was different though, the protheans were there, and they told me something, about a cataclysm or something." She said unsure.

"That changes everything… if what you said was true it could be the end of the galaxy, or a super weapon, who knows what Saren might have learnt."

The intercom beeped. "Sir, we're approaching the relay in 20 and arrival at the citadel in 24 hours." Joker said.

"Right, well we better hope we can stop Saren soon commander." Anderson said before walking out.

XXXXX

Heading out after gathering her UNSC standard fatigues, she was greeted by two friendly faces and a squad of others.

"Commander, I'm sorry what happened on Eden Prime." Ash said apologetically.

"No that's alright, I'd have jumped in for anyone, and besides, it was better for me." She said.

"Okay, well how are you doing?"

"Could be worse, we need to bring Saren down though, and his geth."

"Yeah, I just wish that…" Ash trailed off.

"We arrived sooner?" Shepard finished.

"I know it sounds selfish but, I didn't want to lose my squad."

"Don't blame yourself; things happen in conflict, you didn't know about the ambush."

"But I should have, I mean they're walking tin cans with flashlights for heads? How could I miss that?"

"Well it's too late now, we just need to keep moving, the mission mustn't be jeopardised." She said.

"Right, I can see why they chose you for the job then." She said before moving off.

"How did you always end up as the best?" Jovi asked from behind.

"Let's just say, the luck of the draw."

"Huh, guess luck must be on your side, but then again, any Spartan has luck."

"What makes you say I'm a Spartan?"

"Because of your posture and structure it is calm and coordinated, most soldiers would have had some issues by now, but you seem to keep at it."

"My father was a Spartan commander."

"It was Karl right? He was the best of them all; I can't believe he went missing though."

"It was only twenty years after the war, he said to my mum that there was another important thing he had to do, a covenant fleet master talked to him about a great threat, and they both vanished in the Purge."

"So I hear, but how come you never accepted a position as a Spartan?" The death mask asked.

"Because I was born as a Spartan, not one that needs to be made." She explained.

"Good to hear, but it might help to keep up your strength; I have in the armoury a new suit, the MKVII."

"A MKVII? But those aren't even supposed to be out, how did you get one?"

"I have a lot of friends at Hyperion Corp, they told me the prototype was finished but, the suit needed further tests, I volunteered, but I figured you might need it."

"Where is it?"

"As I said, in the ships armoury, I kept it in my special works room, and told it was ONI: III, they'd need clearance, by the way, what's your favourite colour?" He asked with a smile.

XXXXX

In the time it took to explain the new features of the suit that was being prepared Shepard made her way over to mess, she decided that she'd eat something seeing as being out for nearly a day can cause quite an appetite.

She was also off to go see Jenkins in the med bay along with Nihlus, the poor turian had never had a chance, but she was betting he'd be fine within the next few days. Chakwas had assured her that there was little chance he was going to die once they had him inside a bio-tank.

Setting her food down on the table in the mess hall, Shepard began to chow down on her food, the usual beef and potatoes with a cup of water and a side dish of mushroom surprise. She didn't complain about the food, she was a Spartan or child of one of the greatest.

A while later she quickly picked her way through all the meal and prepared herself for the more needed part of the day, sleep.

She walked about to her bunk in the crew quarters; it was in a separate cubicle, though she had military rank to allow her a more prestigious room, one that was empty and large enough to fit her suit.

Though not as fancy it was what every Spartan had, a plain bunk and a table with a desk and a computer with all their necessary files, and intel. Ellen walked to her bunk though, she had previously accessed her files from UCAF command and this was no different, the debriefing was to take place on the citadel, she had seen it before in images and recordings but she had never been there herself.

Well on the off note she'd talk about her experience later, right now sleep. Taking off her military grey boots along with her black shirt with the insignia of UCAF and her pants, she stripped to her bare essentials. It was a sight to see in a Spartan, but for Ellen, this was more, her pale skin seemed to glow in the light, and her hair seemed to flow, anyone could see she was a diamond in a hay stack, a rather small hay stack.

Pulling herself to her bed, she lay down under the covers and timed her clock for the next morning; she was going to have a busy day ahead.

XXXXX

(To you guys, Shepard will return later…)

XXXXX

In the darkness of space, a large ship that seemed to embrace the darkness trailed away from its previous engagement, inside one asari matriarch and one turian stood in the darkness of the room, there was little to say, and there was less to know.

"Has the beacon been destroyed?" Saren asked darkly.

"Yes, but it seems that someone had managed to access it before it was destroyed." Saren walked about until she spoke of the occurrence, he grabbed her by the neck.

"This being must be eliminated." He said to her face darkly.

"We are too close to our goal to fail now, begin the processing and planning, we need to prepare for the next stage. And where is that infernal machine?" He called out.

"Right here, not like you'd care anyway, 'you jackass'." A bulbous headed machine said.

"Oh quit your bitter bitching, or I will have you stripped of that incessant groaning and moaning option, which seems like the better idea at this moment." Saren said icily.

"And they call the matriarch an ice queen." Marvin said.

"Shut up, I will crush you if you talk about me again…" Benezia said.

"[INAUDBILE DRABLE OF A RETORT]"

"Oh just get on with it."

"Fine, I'll go get the others ready, you witless asshole."

XXXXX

I love to make Saren cry, so tune in next time for more Marvin the much munching machine and his mournful adventures across the galaxy


	3. Chapter 3

CH3

XXXXXX

So, who shot the sheriff?

XXXXXX

The Normandy came through the mass relay and into the large nebula, the Serpent Nebula had been one of the most difficult to navigate region in the galaxy. With the exception of Nova Stratus being the most dangerous with ion storms, which is why this misty pinkish and purple hued region is suitable as a natural barrier and protection for the seat of the council government.

And which is why Ellen Shepard dreaded coming here, waking up from her rest, she stretched out to look into the endless expanse of the sector, the place was nothing compared to the Forerunner homeworld of Reverence. She had grown up listening to their tales of ancient days, though she couldn't really understand their reason for being as protective as they were.

This place that the council seat of government had set up was not as brilliant, it had been too structured as a hierarchy, rather than as an absolute democracy. And in which she had seen as flawed in some sense, though as prestigious to live here, it had many flaws.

In the forerunner worlds and the precursor origins, they had structured a cohesive and productive means of securing a government and bringing equality. Here poverty ran in this society far too greatly, while in the seedier regions of even UNSC space such poverty didn't even exist.

There was too many different reasons though, the UCAF had posed this to the council on numerous occasions and had asked if they could improve the lively hood of their population. Yet they rejected these policies and ideas as near impossible, saying such things may bankrupt most of their economy.

The UCA held strong at their words and beliefs and continued on, things took to their own pace and the UNSC/UCAF both began their own protective organisations within the outer colonies and in council space. The council species though were not as grateful for such changes made to their daily lives, as much harsher restrictions on crime became apparent and entire generations were trained as protectors and role models for civil security.

The marauders had to handle much of this and began to crackdown on many racketeering and smuggling operations, which had proven far more successful than any other police force. This put a very dangerous strain on public relations by the other species except the covenant.

It is still a widely debated issue and there has yet to have it resolved any time soon. Though crime had taken a staggering drop, there is still heavy animosity amongst the people.

Shepard knew that this wasn't the only thing that had strained the UCAF in the past, there were many cases in which the quarians had been accused of many crimes, but none had yet to be proven. The racial tension between the people didn't help, and soon the UCA had to start allowing their guardian family members to protect them whenever they enter council space.

There have been many obstacles the UNSC/UCAF had to overcome, and this was one of many, the malevolence of the turians and then the aggressiveness of the Krogan and the Batarians, and finally the ever present salarians, who have yet to stop their impeding of human technology at every corner.

Yes the things the council tries to deal with, regularly end up nowhere with the UCAF/UNSC, and is still out of reach. Shepard couldn't help but feel as though she was back in her childhood visiting the momentous citadel.

In her mind she had rather not be here, as it was only another reminder to what the council was limited by, the mass relays and their useless FTL travel capabilities.

And then the com chimed. "Commander, we're approaching the citadel, you might want to see this." Joker said.

"I'm on my way." She replied curtly before getting her UCA uniform skin jacket on.

The walk to the bridge was uneventful, there was four lifts so nearly everyone got to where they needed to without being stalled, and these were much faster than most lifts the council used. Upon arriving at the CIC, she was greeted by the usual sight of the galaxy map in the rectangular room, it sat only midway and was usually changing constantly to different images.

She didn't understand why they used the oversized holograms when there were much easier means of looking at the galaxy. Walking down the flight of steps that separated the system controls and the operations, she came to an abrupt stop in the cockpit.

"Good to see you commander, we're about to come into visual range of the citadel." The Australian accented pilot said, which we will just for now call, Jerrod.

"Hey don't steal my line." Joker said accusingly.

As the ship zipped through the nebula, they came into visual range of the citadel. The sight was as impressive as it was to any newcomer and most of the crew was new, Shepard could only watch as Ash and Kaiden gawked at the size of it, and commented on the council fleet.

As they continued through, they came upon the dozens of council ships that was scattered about.

"The Destiny Ascension, the flagship of the citadel fleet." Kaiden stated.

"Man, one of those things would have held well against the Aspire during the war or the Few and None, but as large as she was, she still packed some firepower."

"It's not that great, the UNSC Aspire could out manoeuvre that piece of junk any day of the century and the Few and None, was the most powerful even by today's standards of dreadnoughts the council fleet produces. They'll never catch up with us." Joker said confidently.

"Well it can't hurt to at least have her in a fight now can it?" Ashley asked.

"Yeah, if you want cover, but hey, there's always scrap metal isn't there?"

The Normandy approached the massive station, as they made approach the UCAF IFF tower and systems ID them as they approached the station.

"UNSC: Normandy SR1, please proceed to dock 15." The tower AI directed.

"Roger tower, proceeding to D15." Joker responded.

And in a few moment the frigate pulled to the inside of the station, the dock lay in wait, setting down carefully the ship held in position as the clamps attached themselves to the hull. As it completed the attachment the ship's internal sensors acknowledged the landing.

"Right, we should get going." Shepard said going to retrieve her gear.

"Oh, could you guys get me a bottle of V? They only have one vender here that actually makes the stuff well." Joker asked.

"Well we'll see, but I think you're going to have to ask Nichole on that." Ellen said leaving to the air lock.

"Hey, come on, Nicki doesn't even drink she's an AI, how's she going to tell…" Joker whined.

Shepard made her way down to the lift and then to the left of it where the personnel access air lock was located, she walked in and waited as the rest of her team suited up. Ian and Selena were both going to go see their mother on the presidium, Alexis had to report with her to the council along with Jovi and Dominic and Ashley and Kaiden.

"Okay, so else thinks that this elevator is slow as shit?" Ash asked.

"We all do chief." Kaiden said.

They had entered the lift to the presidium only to wait inside the minute and a half lift to the third level. Shepard also remembered being here the first time, the lifts were just as slow as they had been since she had lived here and it wasn't going to get better.

The door chimed as they arrived on the main presidium level, stepping out they entered the place of politics and games, mostly games of political importance or just ones that the other races make up to piss people off.

As they departed to their own things, Shepard and the main ground team headed off to meet with the speaker and the panel. They entered the UNSC/UCAF/NCE (New Covenant Empire) main embassy in another section of the citadel, the impressive forerunner like building stood in the neighbouring district to the main presidium.

It had seven columns and was over 7stories high and had a 117m width, the structure was built from mostly reinforced ablative iridium armour, coloured chrome black, it had the most up to date sensors and scanners and stretched 7stories below as well. The massive complex had over 300 known guardian drones and pulse lancer turrets hidden inside the walls of the outside of each column. The embassy also possessed an impressive 20 trans-light assault beams and a security detachment of 250 inside the building.

They walked to the building through an access way located in the flight of stairs between the elcor and volus embassy and the new quarian embassy made by the building was situated on the level with nothing in range but open air, there was a massive circular park that surrounded the embassy. Water fountains lined each park with water pools that ran through a type of moat.

Shepard knew that the moat had laser trip mines in place in case of attack, and the flooring in the entire region was made as defences for the marines, there were probably dozens of 50cal emplacements with pillboxes.

Walking through to the main complex they were greeted by the command AI which verified them, it took mere seconds as they walked in to meet with the main panel and speaker, the speaker controlled the voice of the people and spoke out at each other; the UCAF speaker was Ingham Dray.

The other person that spoke for the UNSC/UCAF/NCE was the covenant reps: Unarra Moremorre retired fleet mistress and now rep for the sangheili, Yan-Yan the ungoggy rep, Zak' Rii the rep for the Kig yar, Mardel Ungara the rep for the Jiralhane. There were a few other species, though reliant upon the alliance of the two powers.

The talks between the panel and the council didn't seem to go well, the ambassador of the UEG Udina argued. "The council has an obligation to defend its space, yet why are you sitting so smugly behind your doors?"

"We are not the ones hiding ambassador, your government knows fully well that the Attican Traverse is not council space, and the forces cannot simply intervene. Your people had said it yourselves that the UNSC and UCAF had some of the greatest military power, and here we are in argument of the defence of your colonies." Valern retorted.

Then it was Dray to the rescue. "Yes I understand that we cannot make demands of our current situation, however this cannot be one issue that is to be ignored, if you cannot provide a sense of support then we shall request it. But should you in that likeness ignore our request for aid, then we shall assume to take the safety of our people in our own hands."

"Speaker Dray, you and your people had known that the traverse is not our place of power and we cannot begin to support as it would provoke attention from the terminus systems. And we would never allow such actions to be taken in the traverse, you believed that your colonies could defend themselves with what forces they had and you should accept that there is nothing more you could do." Valern replied once more.

"Then I am sorry to say that we shall defend even against your wishes, humanity shall only fight for the protection of its people as it is threatened." He said.

"And we shall join them." Unarra added.

The other covenant species seemed to agree, they had all reached a consensus, there was no doubt in their minds that a joint force couldn't win against the foolish machines.

The temperature had suddenly dropped to an all-time low, the salarian councillor attempted to calm the situation down. "Now is not the time for both sides to quarrel against each other, the UNSC are sure to secure its own situation, and we will however consider your situation."

"That is at an agreement councillors, however, our people are dying, and we will take action in the traverse whether you would approve or not. The terminus systems be damned when we do go to war, as I remember the Batarian Homogony had not forgotten about the reminder of the Blitz. I doubt any power would oppose us when we are forced to attack."

"Is that a threat speaker Dray?"

"No, it is a warning, though we shall only see what course of action you will take at the hearing, and as I said councillors, even with your judgement to Saren, we will take action." He said staring at them clearly.

"Very well, we shall adjourn this meeting." Tevos said.

The holograms vanished and the panel calmed down with a collective sigh, mostly things had been more than hectic with the council refusing to take action and the geth had been at full force assaulting the northern galactic colonial frontier, even though they're a handful of colonies, they were under constant threat.

Speaker Dray looked to Shepard with Udina following behind him, Captain Anderson was already entering from behind Shepard's squad.

"Captain Anderson, I see you have brought your Spartans to question?" Udina asked.

"Only the ground teams from Eden Prime and the support team."

Dray said. "Very well captain, I do hope that we can resolve the issue surrounding Saren as soon as possible, we have a limited amount of time as it is as the colonies are growing restless in the in activity of the UCAF in the regions, the militia have already begun full scale defences and planetary construction of LWB shields."

"That's good to hear speaker, how is the Covenant going to react to this conflict?"

Unarra arrived to answer Anderson's question.

"We have a substantial force already being formed Captain, the covenant stand with you in any crisis."

"Thank you, representative Unarra." Dray said.

"How will the tribunal go?" Shepard asked.

"There is a meeting in council chambers soon, you and your team have at least half an hour to arrive there and we will then proceed with presenting our case."

"Sir yes sir." Shepard replied.

XXXXX

The quick trip to the fast travel terminal and they had a transport to the Citadel Tower, upon arriving they walked from the transit terminal there only to encounter a interesting argument between to turians.

"Saren is hiding something, I know it." A blue C-sec turian said.

A white face marked turian with obvious higher rank replied.

"Where and how would you know Garrus? There's almost no evidence to support what you're saying."

Garrus replied. "Sir, there's evidence I know, but you have to postpone the council's judgement, if there's still time I could…" Garrus was stopped by his superior.

"Postpone the council? Even I wouldn't be that foolish, look Garrus, we can't do anything from this point on, the evidence hasn't revealed anything, and their judgement is final. There's nothing left, you're off the case." He said before walking off from the exhausted turian.

Shepard and her team approached the scene; Garrus turned his attention to the group.

"Commander Shepard? Garrus Vakarian, I was on the investigation of the charges placed against Saren." The turian officer explained.

Shepard asked. "What happened?"

"Not much as you can see, the bureaucratic standing here is same as ever, things haven't changed even since the first contact war. The council refuses to believe that their best spectre has gone rogue, even though I had the evidence."

"What do you mean by had evidence?" Ashley asked.

"A person I know who had intel in the UCAF network had the findings from the attack, but last night he was found dead and all evidence gone, though C-sec found the mercenaries responsible, they were found dead as well, all the evidence was gone."

"That sounds ominous." Selena said.

"Yeah it does, wait are you asari?" He asked confused at the human/asari.

"Umm… Yes?"

"But…"

Shepard decided to intervene. "Garrus focus, is there anything we should know?"

Garrus remembered the things at hand and responded. "Yes, one thing is that there have been reports of a large geth force that had taken to the edge of the Perseus Veil, there were also reports from a UCAF marine that the geth have begun some kind of invasion in the Attican Traverse. Though nothing heavily official a lot of warnings went out."

"Well looks like we're back at square one, I'll start planning on my new knife sets." Jovi said.

"Real funny Jovi… Thanks for the news Garrus." Shepard said.

"Good luck, if those idiots don't believe in you, shits going to hit the fan." Garrus said walking off.

The squad held quiet, they all knew that the council would never take action yet, things were as good as anyone would hope. And if Garrus was correct on the rumours and partial intelligence reports, then things were going to become very hectic.

Walking to the top of the stairs they encountered Anderson waiting.

"Come on, the tribunal is about to begin." He said hastily climbing the stairs.

Upon arriving they found Dray and Udina placing their investigations and charges forwards.

Tevos was replying to one comment. "There is no evidence found by C-sec that connects Saren to the attack on Eden Prime."

"Then what about the recent killing of one specific UCAF intelligence agent? The agent had specific data and was then cornered by nearly two dozen thugs before he went down, there has to have been some reason, due to that agent being Tier-3 even higher ranked than most of your spectres, how was he found out to have that intel?"

Valern responded heatedly. "Your security perhaps isn't as powerful or secretive anymore, council species have made many updates in technology, it is likely someone had discovered your agent, most likely a geth agent and possibly paid the mercenaries off."

"That's impossible, because all data is kept off the network and any information is restrained to one specific AI in UNSC and UCAF space, not even colonies know of UCAF agents. It had to have been an inside job, there's no one in the UNSC that has many contacts here, and all UCAF agents and population have had years of dedicated lives in the protection of their people, even light transports have heavy guards."

"Well then we don't possess the answers to what had occurred." Maelon said in his 50s. (Most salarians have had increased life spans due to the UCAF and UNSC and NCE)

"I resent these charges, I have helped all I can in council space and UCA and UNSC space, I have no reasons for taking such actions and I would never attack Nihlus, he was a friend and a colleague."

Anderson responded accusingly. "That's why he dropped his guard long enough for you to strike at him."

"Ah, Captain Anderson, you seem to always be at the forefront when humans start to press false charges against me."

"You know as well as I do Saren, that the incident at Valence was no falsification, the Fenris brotherhood still wanted to know why you murdered the high guardian." He said angrily.

"That was of no concern to this situation, what happened then was a closed case Anderson that was it, nothing more. But what else should anyone expect from humans?" He said despondently.

The councillors were unsure of what had happened during the war between the two, but they turned their attention to the Spartans.

"Commander Shepard, please step forwards."

She did as she was told.

"Have you any evidence that may clarify on the current events?"

"I do, I have sufficient evidence that Saren may have had been involved in the attack on Eden Prime." She said and activated her Nova tool.

An image appeared with Saren at the tram port waiting for Nihlus as he walked over.

"This was taken by one of my comrades, Dominic; he located Saren ahead of schedule and managed to take an LWF integrated image." She said.

The image was crystal clear, there was no doubt that it was Saren and NIhlus, though it was approximately 75m away, the image couldn't have been easier to see. Saren at this point felt foolish only to remember the Spartans being at the area.

The image dispersed and the council responded. "Is this all of your evidence commander?"

"Unfortunately yes, there was interference afterwards and Dominic had been ordered to fire in order to save Spectre Nihlus."

There was a moment of pause, things had gone far differently than what they wanted, the council wasn't allowed to deny evidence from Spartans, even if they were human and also seeing as the Spartans had been even more trusted by the council since the BLITZ and the many other conflicts.

Tevos looked to her left in the shadows, she tapped a specific button on her wrist, and she knew her son would do as he was told, she knew that she could trust him into investigating further than most of the Spectres. His eyes glinted from the shadows; pure piercing white retinas appeared and simply blinked.

The council turned back to the Spartans, Tevos managed to get them to agree to a postponed action until things could be completely and thoroughly thought through.

"The evidence against Saren Arterius stands; we shall postpone this tribunal until a full investigation is able to clarify any evidence."

The Spartans and the UNSC/UCAF members seemed to be surprised; they had never encountered such a situation before.

The council seemed hasty to leave and Saren had already disappeared from the projector, they walked off the circular dais and moved to the stairs.

"Well that was interesting." Dray said.

"What makes you say that?" Anderson asked.

"This had never happened, even during the BLITZ the council was always final in their judgement with humanity, and this is always rare in the higher cases. Things must be far more complicated if they called this off for the rest of the day, or even the week."

Shepard added. "Well should we get to work? We have time now, and I doubt that there will be another chance like this in a very long time."

"Agreed commander, begin your own investigation and clear whatever mess up, I will meet with HIGH Command and ask for a situation update, and supply my report." Dray said.

"So where do we begin?" Ian asked.

Anderson provided their answer. "If you need to begin with your search, head to a place called Requiem, it's a small place in the wards if you need info, just go there, a man named Christian lives there. He was an ex-UCAF Spartan V, but never made the cut, he used to then work as a marauder, he still does, but works as a close contact undercover agent in the wards, go to him for anything."

"Thank you captain, we better get to work." Shepard replied.

The group headed off, their mission was just starting…

XXXXX

(Now to my readers, I will be either updating the first few chapters because they are inconvenient and also they no longer fit the continuity of the story.)

I will see you guys later, and also, QUARIANS ARE ON THEIR WAY!

Tali will make her intro into the story, and a bottle of **V** FTW!


	4. Chapter 4

CH4

(Great news guys, I am officially quitting all my writing for approximately 5-6 months and I may not even be back after that.)

Well it was fun while it lasted, and I do hope to write to all of you again in the future, I will be still posting a handful of things, and I might finish adding all the new stuff before I leave. To all I say, have a nice day!

BTW There's one last thing I will give to all my readers, go to the new series: Halo Origins: Path to Salvation and it will give you all the need to know, and also because I need to do a rewrite for some of the major stories I have.

Revelations: RW

Halo's Call: RW

Fate is never set: RW

XXXXX

Tonight… tonight…

XXXXX

The transit to the lower wards was short, though Shepard couldn't help but feel as though she had forgotten something. A hyper velocity round punched through the air where she had been standing, and another trade of bullets were exchanged.

She turned about to fire on the assassins; her rounds punched through one and struck another in the shoulder. Things had not gone exactly to plan, she expected things to be interesting but not in the manner that she was dodging bullets left and right.

She pulled her M51A Short hand rocket and fired directly at a cluster of turians behind a wall, the obvious lob of the shell sent the squad scattering, but not fast enough, the round detonated shredding the squad to pieces.

The other Spartans began killing the rest of the assassins off, Jovi had managed to get close enough to start ripping them apart with blades. His MKVI Security armour held off the barrage of MA rounds as he began to tear and maim the poor assassins. His first victim was a one who had a rifle half way up found that putting his rifle in front of his body wasn't going to save him from a 15 inch resonating blade.

The blade cleaved the rifle and then passed through the cranium and downwards of the turian; he fell down with a massive line and blood spilling from it.

"You ready?" He called out as he killed another.

The battle then ended abruptly as the remaining turians died from gunshots to the head, Shepard and her team looked about to face a surprisingly young looking soldier, though he had white hair and plenty of scars he looked like he was only 20.

"So, you must be Shepard I take it? They were right when they said that trouble tends to follow you." The slightly military/casual dressed man said.

"Yes well, never thought a washout Spartan could hit like that." She replied.

"We surprise even ourselves commander, I heard you might have been looking for me, thought I'd find you myself, I'm Christian." He saluted.

"Good to finally meet you." She said walking over to the ex-Spartan.

"Like wise commander, I thought you might come looking for evidence on Saren, though we better talk inside of my shop, don't want people to hear anything." He gestured.

They all went into the shop the Spartan owned; the impressive building looked nice, if not a bit dull, there was a number of things inside the shop that anyone would want, though some looked older than the UCA and UNSC. There were weapons and antiques as well as more up to date technology and gear.

"This is my life's work, setting a good price and example, I owned this shop about a year after the first contact war, and it has done me well after." He said getting behind the counter.

"So you want to know where a certain C-sec officer went." He asked.

"Yes, Garrus Vakarian, we need him to aid in our investigation of Saren Arterius." She explained.

"Right, well you can find him at Dr Michel's office on the second floor of the wards, she has a clinic where you can visit, but I do advise that there might be some trouble on your way there. Also I heard about a recent bounty hunter that has gone up against that certain spectre you spoke of, his name is Wrex I am sure you'll find him sometime sooner or later." He explained.

"Thank you Christian." Shepard said.

"Oh, by the way, you can come to me if you need upgrades, or modified gear, I can fix you right up and quick." He offered.

"We'll consider your offer, but not now." She said respectfully to the Spartan.

The team caught their large transport and pushed the coordinates for the clinic in, they all headed to the second floor of the wards in a matter of moments. Upon arriving they found another transport parked outside with a C-sec signature.

"Let's hurry we might have made it in time." Shepard said.

The team entered to see that there were 7 armed men holding the doctor up, she was panicking as they pointed guns at her, though they didn't notice the turian hiding behind a desk with his pistol drawn.

"Garrus better not know of anything doctor, or else you might have an unfortunate accident."

The noticed long enough and pointed their guns in Shepard's direction. "Who are you?"

Shepard used her fast reflexes to fire on the leader easily, he never even stood a chance as the kinetic barrier failed as the hyper velocity slug that weighed 10grams punched through and killed him instantly.

Another thug that had the doctor was dead as Garrus appeared and with a single shot killed the man with ease.

"Shit, it's Garrus." One yelled.

They backed off as the turian approached, then it all went into a blur of lights, Shepard and team struck with precision and blunt brutality. Garrus remained in his position firing off as though nothing could harm him, he clipped a good group as a tank of flammable ionised gas in the rear of the room detonated from his shooting, the group of hired thugs were shredded by the blast.

The fight only lasted 30 seconds before everyone was sure the thugs were dead, Shepard went over with and said.

"Garrus Vakarian I presume?" She asked placing her pistol back into its holster.

"Commander Shepard?"

"Yes, that be me, it seems as though you enjoyed the fire fight?"

"Sorry, about that, perfect timing though, the thugs were giving me a hard time to surprise them."

"Yeah, well you might want to mention that to the doctor."

"Oh… Doctor Michelle, are you alright?" Garrus asked the frightened woman.

"I'm fine, but those men, they were after the guardian and his sister." She said hastily.

"Who?" Jovi said confused.

"A guardian and his quarian relative, that's who, remember back in the academy, the UCA had called for guardian volunteers to aid in pilgrimages for quarians of age, they were selected as family from generations past. They exchange protection for nothing, and only when one or the other dies does compensation occur." Alexis explained.

"So, a quarian and her brother were here?" Shepard asked.

"Yes, though the brother was injured, he came asking about information in exchange for a safe house, I thought to put him in touch with the shadow broker, but he declined as he said it was dangerous. He said something about another place, as a safe house that his family located in the wards, but those thugs can be anywhere, especially since Fist began siding with the shadow broker."

"So, it seems as though, were going to have to pay Fist a visit, did the guardian say anything else?" Shepard asked.

"No, he just said that and made his way out, but he had mumbled something about a recent attack on Eden Prime."

"Well that settles this; we need to find the guardian and his quarian charge."

"But where do we start, the entire wards can be filled with safe houses, remember there's over a million pilgrims from the guardians that come visit here every year, and they pass family knowledge on to others, the safe house can be somewhere between this end to level 200."

"That's why we're going after Fist; he should have the better view, seeing as he put most of his forces out into the open to scour the wards."

Shepard and her team was about to leave when Garrus said. "Wait, commander, I know that you might think this rushed, but I can help."

"Help how? We have an entire team of Spartans and marines on the wards, we also happen to have years more experience Garrus."

"Yeah, I know, but I can help, I know the wards better than anyone else, and I do have a sharp eye for sniping."

"Well considering you got that thug at half glance, and our sniper here is a little lazy on the eyes…"

"Hey!" Dominic said.

"…we'll be happy to have you along, though just remember, our business now is just getting the guardian. I'll need a background check as soon as we've completed our task here."

"You won't regret this." He said following behind.

"I surely hope not." Ellen replied.

XXXXX

The team appeared at the club, this time armed with as much available fire power they could pack, Jovi hefted his MA9A [M], the shock rifle held tightly in his grasp, and the modified rifle was purchased back on Arcturus. Jovi never explained the complicated procedures of modifying the gear, only he and Christian were the only people Ellen had met that actually could.

Ashley and Kaiden were also packing some firepower, with Ash holding her standard MA9A and her M6A with laser sight; she also carried a number of different grenades and explosives. Kaiden packed a hefty number of biotic tools, including bio-amps and bio-nodes; he was ready for a fight.

Ellen had her M6 [S], the silenced magnum was useful for precision and range, but also for headshots, the thugs and hired goons weren't exactly hard to deal with. Garrus had his assault rifle, an MA7A, the standard for all non-alliance military and only used in council space, these weapons were obsolete by the UCAF standards in fire power, though were still useful as practice, C-sec and most other military factions used these older models, purely for cost effectiveness.

The rest of the team had their own rifles drawn, with the exception of Dominic, Ian, Selena, and Alexis. Dominic carrying his BR-MA-55 and DMR-M9 along with his M7A [S], Ian was an Adept, his pistol and SMGs were slung to his side, but the glow in his eyes was a born factor that he didn't need weapons. Selena had dual pistols and a shotgun, an E-ICQB F-12 series, the shotgun was also known as the 12 gauge 'shotty' and a standard M6 [A].

Alexis carried by far the most unique weapons in the squad, her rifle was a M50-ICWS Rifle, the 'Vulcan Carbine' as they were known as, the rifle had an unlimited supply of ammunition and had one of the most advanced cooling systems available in the galaxy. Her side arm was the M7S [V], the 'Viper' as the SMG was known as, was the same SMG that was modified to cut a swath through any armour or shields in existence, it was also the most accurate, it was a next to none type of weapon.

Shepard exited the shuttle along with the squad; they turned to the open sidewalk where the entrance to Chora's Den was, only to be stopped by a rifle shot that blew by Shepard's head by mere inches.

The hired turians on the other side had been waiting for some time for the commander and her squad, they fired with concentrated bursts, and these were the same turians hired by Saren when Ellen was going to meet with Christian.

"So, I guess we finally met with Saren's private army?" She said sarcastically.

"Yeah looks like it, though they lack numbers." Jovi replied.

The turians went down faster than a varren chewing apart a steak. The team reached the door to Chora's den and began to hack the door.

"So, what kind of resistance do you think we're going to face?" Garrus asked.

"Not much, just a few guards, probably a krogan or two, but there shouldn't be too much of an issue in dealing with these thugs." Ashley replied.

"Yeah, hope your right." Jovi said grinning.

The door slid open, and it took seconds as dozens to hundreds of rounds punched through the doorway, Ashley came up with a plasma grenade and cooked the grenade before tossing it in. She had a vague idea of her targets, but still managed to hit the thug behind the counter.

The thug only had moments before he and whoever in his vicinity were vaporised or melted by the extreme heat. With the thugs distracted from the sudden damage, Ellen and her team rushed the room, she used her M6 to pick off two thugs on the platform above the bar, and Jovi went into a rush to tackle the krogan, Selena used lift and pull on the left flank and her brother reaped them of their blood.

Garrus snipped whatever remained and Kaiden was on clean up, the others stayed at the doorway for Shepard to negate her way to fist, and ensure that there weren't any surprises waiting for them on the way out.

Ellen jumped the remaining corpses, and then with Jovi who had finished ripping the skull of the krogan bouncers head off, and Alexis, who came into the room after them, gathered to the door to fists office.

Upon opening the door she was confronted with two grunts and an human worker.

"Freeze." One grunt yelled.

"Dock workers, looks like all the real guard are dead." Jovi commented.

"You boys better scram, or you might end up like your fellows outside." She gestured to the amounts of bodies littering the floor.

"Right, never liked fist, this job is way too much." One dock worker said jogging off.

"Hey wait for me!" A grunt yelled.

"Never would have thought to do that." Alexis said.

"Violence isn't always necessary." Shepard replied.

They continued on, first searching through some crates before they checked Fist's locked door, she began hacking the door. Green, red, red, yellow, and then green, Shepard always wondered if the citadel security was this crappy, or that was just part of the entire council and terminus space.

Once the doors slid open she could hear Fist yell. "When you need something done right, you need to do it yourself."

He began to fire at the squad, Shepard signed that she was going ahead; she looked about the corner when rounds began to pepper her shields. She knew that there was probably in built security systems to stop or hinder intruders.

She pulled her a plasma charge and carefully cooked the explosive, with more advanced armour these days, a person could hold a plasma charge for 3 seconds longer. Aiming it at the wall, she lobbed the grenade.

A loud scream from Fist and a following explosion told her that she got close enough to him. She signalled for the rest to follow and they stepped out, guns aimed at what was left. Shepard noted immediately the two drones and a Loki mech, all damaged or destroyed.

Fist was ducked on the left side of his desk, gripping a burn from the plasma wash, Shepard quickly apprehended him.

"Hey, I give up alright." The man said in a panic.

"Where are the quarian and her brother?" Shepard asked threateningly.

"Not here, they were supposed to be brought back here, though Saren's men had other plans, they located the safe house and were on their way there. They also took Loki mechs and a YIMR heavy."

"Where's their safe house?" She asked.

"It's on level 30, down by a number of quarian shelters; the place was perfect for any quarian wanting to escape."

"Now, what should we do with you?" Shepard asked.

"Let me go and never see me again?" Fist suggested.

"You know, he might be right, I'd want him taken to C-sec though." Garrus said.

"C-sec ain't safe enough for anybody especially me, the Shadow Broker will go after me as soon as he hears I survived."

Shepard decided. "Fine, get the hell out of my sight before I change my mind."

Fist did so and hurried to the door on the left side of the room.

"Do you think it was a good idea for us to let him go?" Garrus asked.

"Better that than the Shadow Broker to get to him, we better hurry, those quarians aren't going to like what's about to happen." Shepard said heading out.

XXXXX

The team had some resistance as they exited to their shuttle, Saren's men had decided to buy their comrades some time for them to succeed, in their mission, however they didn't anticipate that 4 Spartans and a range of specialists could do damage.

Once they were on their shuttle once more, Shepard punched in the coordinates for level 30, they travelled across through the wards to the quarians own sector on the Citadel, the seedy sector called 30. Infamous for once being a hive of crime, the UCAF was allowed to build a quarian sector there; the UCA sent their best trained security and had all their gear to construct a massive hexagonal structure called 30.

It was the only place that quarians seemed to have peace, and quiet, most other races still try not to affiliate themselves with the quarians and thus only granted them this small amount of breathing space since the war.

Shepard piloted the shuttle into the lower levels of the massive hexagonal structure and landed next to some other transports. Securing the shuttle the team headed out, but not before they were greeted by a krogan in red armour.

"I'm guessing that you're Shepard?" He asked.

"Yeah why do you need to know?"

"I'm Urdnot Wrex, I have given in a bounty from getting to Fist, because I was hired to kill him."

"You work for the Shadow Broker?" Shepard said.

"No, he just hired me for the bounty, and you got to it first, so yeah, not much else."

"And the not much else being Saren?" Shepard asked.

"You have a knack for knowing people, yes, Saren, the Shadow Broker put out a large sum for his head as well, I was planning on going after him, but I decided to ask for some help."

"You need us?" Shepard asked.

"Yes, first because I think that you have some potential in getting your job done, and second because I honour that kind of hell bent destruction you seem to pack."

"Great a krogan with the love of explosives, what else do we need?" Ash said.

"Well we are going to need as much help in dealing with our enemies, what skills do you have?"

"I was raised as a krogan warlord, what else is there to know?"

"Okay then, seeing as we're about to hit Saren's men, you can join."

"Good choice Shepard, I'd like to see how this is going to work." Wrex said walking alongside them.

XXXXX

Once they reached the location where the safe house was, Shepard signalled the teams to stop, she observed the entire region. There was a large open road and buildings on both sides, Saren's men appeared on her scanners to have lodged themselves in on the other side of the road.

She motioned for Jovi and his team to secure the middle building closest to the house, while Ash and Kaiden were with Wrex and Garrus closer to the back, she and the others were going to go in the middle between the two, so they can spread the offensive easily.

"Anyone see the quarians yet?" Shepard asked.

"Not yet, but I have movement." Jovi replied.

Jovi, was a specialist in hunt and kill tactics, so it made sense he had higher resolution on his scanners, bringing his shotgun and grenade launcher, he primed the rounds on the movement.

The door opened to the house, and stepped out two people, one being quarian and the other almost like, the teenage male was probably the guardian, seeing as he was armed to the teeth. While the other being truly quarian, as she was shorter than her brother and more pronounced in her quarian figure of being two toed.

"Tali come on, we need to hurry to the ship, and once we're back with the UCA I think we can find some safety back home." The male said.

"I know Kale, just hold on." The female said.

Then there was blinding lights, the two held back, until their visors polarised, Kale quickly pulled his MA9A and put Tali behind him, he shouted.

"Who's there?"

"Ah, so there you are, Tali Zorah and Kale Zorah, please I think you should come with us, we don't want any accidents now do we?" The turian in black and red armour said.

"Sorry, but I think not." Kale said as he pulled out a trigger.

The turian realised the mistake he made when they arrived at the shelter, quarians always bobby trap them…

"BOOM"

The entire level was shaken by a massive explosion, the piping and nearby vehicles detonated, sending shrapnel and debris flying into Saren's men; they registered what had happened after the initial shock and awe.

Tali and Kale ran in the opposite direction and headlong into Shepard and her team, Kale drew his rifle and aimed.

"Hold it, we're not here to harm you, I'm with the UCA forces, and these are my team members, I'm Commander Shepard."

"Commander Shepard, you mean Ellen Shepard of the Blitz?" Kale asked.

"Yes, that's me."

The teen lowered his rifle. "Finally some help, I'm Kale and this is Tali Zorah, we were looking for the forces hopefully to be in the region."

"Well we're here to help."

"You can start by getting rid of those guys." Kale pointed.

"That's why we're here, and nice trick." Shepard said.

"Thanks."

The teams began to fire at the remaining forces of Saren, the turian in charge reformed his squads and ordered to attack, and Loki mechs began deploying in large force and began to fire into them. Jovi waited as the troops got closer.

"Jovi, go now!" She signalled.

The Spartan acknowledged and ran out from his cover, his blades out from their sheaths and in the open; he embedded two knives into the skulls of a couple of turian troops, while he took to the field under fire with what he had left.

"Ash, take their left flank." Shepard ordered.

"Roger that." Ash said as she ran about.

Wrex and Kaiden used their biotic powers on the left flank, the glowing blue energy knocking back a substantial amount of mechs. The YMIR began to attack, and Ash pulled out a grenade launcher, while Garrus sniped for the head.

The grenade shell was laden with an EM energy charge that shut the massive mech down, it was enough for Garrus to pinpoint its head and remove it with ease. The YMIR exploded seconds later sending down other units to the floor.

Alexis and Dominic were next to Shepard firing off their rifles and carbines into the slowing troops, Ellen then decided to use an EM grenade, the lob landing in between one of the squads and the mechs.

It took seconds for the two marksmen to take both troop squads down, and allow for Selena and Ian to use their biotic combo, the void vortex. All things within the area began to get sucked inside the vortex of biotic and psychic energy, and then violently energised and then, in a spectacular display, detonated.

The end result was a burnt hole in the ground where all the troops had been standing in, the last of Saren's men were cleared out by Jovi, who seemed to overjoy in ripping into the rest of the turians with his two blades, which unsettled Garrus.

The team regrouped, far away from the combat zone, they arrived in the docking bay where their shuttle was waiting, the teams getting into the shuttle first before the others.

"So, where are we going now?" Kale asked.

"To the presidium, we need to speak to Udina and Anderson, my CO and sort this out, once then we can head to the council with the evidence that you were able to attain."

"Very well." Kale said.

XXXXX

When they arrived back on the presidium, they landed at the UCA academy/embassy, where Udina was speaking to the Speaker for the alliance.

"Shepard, you are not making this easy on me, worse two accounts of fire fights and an all-out warzone in the wards, what do you think this is?"

"Getting your evidence?"

"What do you mean?" Udina asked nearly fuming.

"We have here are one quarian engineer, and her guardian brother." Shepard explained.

Udina looked at the two.

"What evidence do you have that we can present to the council and its representatives?" Udina asked.

"We have this sir." Kale said.

A small image of Saren appeared he spoke out in a slightly distorted voice.

"The attack on Eden Prime was a success, soon we shall be able to locate the conduit, and end the council, rejoice my warriors, soon shall a new era dawn, where the fools will end, and were the forerunners shall fall. And darkness shall engulf the galaxy."

"That's it, that's all the evidence we need." Anderson said.

"But there's more." Tali said.

The voice reversed to the near end and then. "And so the reapers shall return."

"Whose voice was that?" Anderson asked.

"No idea, we can probably assume another ally to Saren and his forces." Shepard said.

"We should get going, our meeting is bound to start, Shepard, take your team along with the quarians and protect them at all costs, those two are our highest witnesses in this case. And I'm sure that having an extra pair of hands on the Normandy can't hurt." Anderson said.

"Yes sir, we'll meet you there." She replied.

"So, a turian, quarian and an asari walk into a bar with six humans."

Jovi said.

"Don't start."

XXXXX

They arrived at the tower once they had managed to clear their priorities, Shepard led the team into the interior of the chambers where the councillors were awaiting their return, and the most troubled look was on Tevos.

Udina had presented the case to the council and was in the process of getting them to acknowledge the threat that Saren posed to them all.

"This cannot be ignored, Saren has gone rogue, and for a faction that is willing to eliminate the council species and most of the galaxy." Maelon said.

Valern looked somewhat displeased that after all these years that their best had finally gone to the deep end and against all of his work Valern shouldn't probably mention of what kind of work Saren had been doing though.

"Agreed, this situation has gone out of hand; Saren will be stripped of his spectre status and will be placed on all our wanted lists for the region." Valern stated.

"That's not enough, you can take his status, but he's already fled into the traverse, we need to go after him." Anderson said.

"Send a fleet after him, impossible, especially since the treaty held in place to stop the alliance from forcefully expanding their territory out of the jurisdiction of the council."

Shepard decided to intervene. "Then I propose that I should go after him, under the provided support of the council."

Tevos looked at Ellen and looked to the others.

"No, it's too soon."

Anderson added. "Shepard has been on the viewing for almost three months, and since the blitz, she's the best that the alliance can send out."

But then there was a surprise. "And I support." The huddled figure of Nihlus said.

"You're up and about already?" Shepard asked.

"Yeah, thanks to the medical ingenuity of the alliance, they got me up and about in no time." He said happily.

"Well, those in favour?" Maelon asked.

It was cut short as Tevos remained undecided, the crowds remained surprised that Tevos would do such a thing, many were surprised.

"I shall allow for the vote; however I do need to confirm one thing."

"And that is?" Shepard asked.

"I'd like to send my son along with you, he had been on the investigation for the same reasons and he only just returned, Thom, could you please confirm?" Tevos asked aloud.

There was a shimmer as the mysterious person materialised next to the councillor.

"I can confirm that the commander's evidence is authentic and that it is valid, I have been after Saren's corruption charge since four years ago." He said calmly.

"Wait who is this?" Anderson asked.

"This is Thom-S2199, he was given to the council over forty years ago, we had him as a special investigation and operations, and well I did." Tevos explained.

"And when were you going to tell us that you made your son into a private investigation, without the council's permission?" Valern asked.

"I did have that option however Valern, I would not be speaking considering how much Thom had uncovered about past incidents." She spoke coldly.

The turian councillor shut up immediately, knowing what she had been referring to.

"Will you accept the aide of my son in your apprehension of Saren?" Tevos asked.

"I shall." Shepard replied.

"Very well." Tevos said.

Thom stood back a few paces and waited as the official announcement was made.

The room was already packed, with elites and humans along with almost every race.

"Under the decision of the council, Commander Shepard of the United Colonial Alliance that you shall be vested the powers and duties of the Special Tactics and Reconnaissance division of the council."

"Spectre's are not born, they are chosen, forged from the fires of service and duty." Maelon said adamantly.

"Spectres represent the council and its interests for all races, and strive to improve upon." Valern said.

"And Spectres prove their ability through courage and honour and through their will for all in their command." Thom finished.

"Congratulations Commander Shepard, you are the first human spectre." Tevos announced.

"I have been awaiting this honour, and I proudly receive it." She replied.

"You shall be sent to apprehend or terminate Saren, who has escaped into the Traverse, you have the permission of the council to proceed at will." Valern said.

"This meeting is adjourned." Tevos announced.

The crowds began to dissipate and go off into their own directions, Tevos and Thom however came down to meet with her.

"Commander Shepard, I do wish that you'd watch for my son, I do wish you both well in your missions." She said.

"Thank you councillor, I shall do what I can."

"Mother, there's no need to do such things, I'm more than capable by myself." Thom said.

"I know; however, now that you have been announced into the public, people will look to you through me, please take care."

Tevos walked off.

"Welcome aboard the team specialist Thom." Shepard saluted.

"It is an honour to be with you commander."

"We'll be gathering back at the ship, I expect you'd gather you're things and meet us there."

"Yes sir." He said before vanishing.

She turned her attention to Anderson and Udina.

"Well Shepard, looks like you've done what we thought was going to take more than just a routine mission." Anderson said.

"Yes, well we need to get you a ship and a number of things set in motion, I need to go speak with the colonial panel and see what we can provide, I'm sure ONI has something to say along with most of them." Udina said before walking off.

Nihlus appeared behind her. "Ungrateful bastard didn't even thank you." He said tired.

"Well, I haven't done anything yet, so, how will you be?" She asked.

"I'll be fine, just in the hospital for another two weeks and then I'll be back with you and the rest."

"You want to join us in our mission?" Shepard asked.

"No, I'm going to the front lines, the council has been under pressure to help the UCAF defend the traverse from any invasion attempts made by the geth. Well good luck to you Shepard." Nihlus saluted.

Shepard turned to her team.

"So, who's ready to get going?"

XXXXX

That's all folks, I'll be going away for another few weeks and I might not be back.

So love to all my readers.

BTW Check out The New series: Halo Origins, I started it for those who are curious about the origins of the Alpha Spartans!


	5. Chapter 5

CH5

XXXXX

First impressions...

XXXXX

Ellen watched from the Normandy, Anderson was returning and he said he wanted to personally ensure that she received the message, whatever it was it was important and more important than anything else to Anderson.

But that's what made her unsure of the news; Anderson had stated that she was going to receive all the help she needed, including something extra. Ellen never had gotten to know the captain to a greater extent either than she respected him as a noble soldier of the alliance and to humanity.

She had always seen him comparably to her mother and her grandmother, Kelly Shepard, the retired Spartan II. She had done so much in her lifetime as did her husband Karl, who went MIA during a top secret operation some years back, it resulted in her becoming depressed, however she lived to overcome her problems and live her life.

Now after all these years it was Ellen's turn to change the galaxy, for better or worse that was yet to come. Walking back to the cockpit, she heard the airlock chime, though the antiquated VI didn't respond and only opened the door for the captain, who was quickly followed in by Udina.

"Captain Anderson, I didn't expect that you'd be bringing representative Udina aboard." She said.

"Don't worry commander; he's here to inform you of what I need to tell you." He stated calmly.

"What is it that you need to tell me sir?" Ellen asked.

"As of this day I relinquish command of the Normandy to you, and also instate your newest member to the ship, Tanya." He replied adamantly.

At that moment the new ship AI appeared, her dress billowed by her sides, and the same old face of one of the most well-known AI appeared. "Acknowledged captain, under the jurisdiction of the UCAF directive, command has been relinquished to Commander Ellen Shepard of the UCAF marines 1st SPECTRE operations chief." Tanya decreed.

"Thank you Tanya, Ellen I would like to introduce, Tanya Valerie, she is taking her position as AI aboard the Normandy as of today, she was specifically selected due to her past years in command of the Aspire and the Dusk." Anderson said pleasantly.

"I… I don't know what to say, thank you sir, thank you for all the help you placed with me sir, and to the crew." Ellen saluted.

"No need for that now, the UCAF had a non-formal policy for retiring officers; I just hope that you'll do well with her." Anderson replied.

Then it was Udina to add his few cents to the bunch.

"Commander, it was decided that you'd take the Normandy for its first trip into council space, and its formal launch from UCAF docks. You'll be given special access to weapons from the ONI and from UCAF groups; they said they'd transfer all the necessary tools you'd require. The covenant has also added their own forces to help, they were sending along a fleet to help us soon, and to deal with the geth, right now your priorities are set."

"We have managed to locate a possible lead, from the recording we had a voice match on the person believed to be Saren's lieutenant, a matriarch Benezia, last seen on Noveria, and there has been reports of her daughter, the Nobel Prize winner Liara T'soni, she was last reported with one team of UCAF marines on Therum, a dig site for forerunner artefacts." Anderson ended.

"So, we locate the most likely candidates for the investigation, how long do I need before these leads go cold?" Shepard asked.

"We don't know that's for you to decide, however there was a report of geth activity on the regions near Therum only a day ago, not to mention an incident on Zhu's Hope, a colony that went silent over a few days before the initial attack on Eden Prime." Anderson replied.

"So, a decision I need to make? Well if this is serious enough, I'll go after Liara, from what I've read back at the academy she gained the trust of the ONI team on Anomia, best go after someone that'd give me better insight into this." Ellen said.

"Well that's your best conclusion, and then you can take it, but remember there are other places, good luck." Anderson finished and saluted.

Returning the gesture Anderson exited the ship with Udina they walked away to the pier and watched as the Normandy began its departure. With Ellen at the helm next to Joker, he asked her.

"Wow, after all those years and battles, you'd think they'd make him an admiral by now."

"Don't worry; I know his decision was his to be made."

"Well at least we can all agree that this decision was the best for you and for humanity." Tanya added.

Shepard watched as the ship left dock, she turned to Tanya and asked her.

"I think I'd like to address the crew."

"Very well, go ahead commander."

Shepard took a heavy breath.

"I know that things don't look hopeful, I know that this has only begun, where we must make the decisions, if we… the whole of all living sentient beings are to survive the coming storm, then we must make a stand. This is a fight for all life, not just human, but all life, for this is our time, our time to prove our strength."

She paused.

"Saren is expecting us, him and the geth, they wait for the arrival of the UCAF in the Traverse, and we're going to be following right behind. He knows that we're going to try and stop him from reaching the conduit and calling in the Reapers, however he underestimates the Normandy and its crew. Which is why I promise you all this, we will stop him."

The crew seemed satisfied by the commander's words, Joker replied.

"The captain would be proud."

"Well then let's not make his sacrifice in vain, set course for Therum." Ellen ordered.

"Yes ma'am."

XXXXX

Ellen was greeted by the sight of six of her newest crew/team members, Tali, Kale, Thom, Ashley, Wrex, and Garrus. Shepard was introducing them to the ship, and also allowing them to gain professional opinion, and for more detailed explanations from Kaiden, who volunteered to show them about.

"Well we need to cut this short, I need to prepare for our next mission on Therum, I expect all of you will be prepared for when the mission begins, and hopefully capable of doing your jobs, there's a urgency in time, however take time to improve." She encouraged them.

"Kaiden you take the tour from here, I need to go speak to Tanya." Shepard explained.

"Yes ma'am." Kaiden replied.

Shepard went to her quarters, which originally were Anderson's, and sat down, she called in Tanya.

The female materialised and inquired. "What is that you need Commander?"

"Have you acquainted yourself with the ship?"

"Yes Commander, I have read over all of the specs from the report, this design was not an amazing feat of engineering but one of the most well awarded."

"Yeah, I heard about the Aspire, she must have been one of the best." Shepard smiled.

Tanya reminisced of her fond memories.

"Aspire and I were said to be inseparable, when we both launched together over 50 years ago." She replied.

"Well, I guess you've gotten to know the crew well, you should be good to go, have you managed to get my new armour specs through to Hyperion?" She asked.

"Not yet, the specs of the unit being rolled out this month and the ones you gave me vastly differ. The MKVII and the UCAF N7 armour were never meant to be mixed; the specs are right now going for another adjustment before Hyperion can make up their minds."

"Well then I hope they get back to me on that as soon as possible, this war isn't going to win itself, have the alliance fleet mobilised in the region?" She asked.

"Yes, over 60 ships from the local defence forces have bulked their scouting and patrolling to the max, they have as many new ships from the 12th and 15th inter system combat fleets on route."

"Good, if we run into trouble we can signal for them to help us."

"Expecting trouble?"

"No, just being cautious, even if the geth are on the edge of the Traverse, it doesn't mean that they don't have advanced ships that slipped past the council scouts. Or to the fact that there are likely more chances of running into pirates out here."

And that said their conversation was almost on the mark.

XXXXX

Therum-orbit

The red world of Therum stood in the bleakness of the system, its surface a mix of blood red and orange, it would be no haven for any person, but it was for miners. The planet was said to been a large resource cache, however there were previous mining spots made millennia before the council, the planet was nothing but a empty shell.

The planet was also discovered to have been in a remote location of space, and it was possible for the UCAF and joint teams to research into some of the ancient buried structures uncovered by the miners. There the UCAF had been hard at work with the covenant to uncover the ancient facility, there was some use in excavation beams, but a majority was painstaking mining by hand and laser.

Therum originally had over 25 ships in orbit, a mix of both covenant and UCAF, but now when Shepard looked from the display, she could see that only 15 remained, and they weren't in the best of conditions.

"Joker what's going on? I thought there was supposed to be more than just them."

Tanya appeared and clarified.

"Commander, detecting high radiation spikes and residual energy signatures, all of which are plasma blasts, the fleet has possibly come under heavy attack, and if reports are right. The geth are still in the region."

"Commander, we're receiving a transmission from the defence fleet."

"Put it through."

The image of an exhausted and injured officer appeared.

"This is the UCAF Summer Glades. I am Admiral Hal Burton, identify yourselves."

"This is the UCAF Normandy, we're on approach under orders from the council, I am commander Shepard and spectre."

"So, first human spectre, and a whole lot of geth, I can make 1 and 1 go together, you must be here for whatever the geth are?" Hal asked.

"Yes, Liara T'soni, she was here with a dig team to unearth a forerunner structure, I assume that she's still down there?" Shepard replied.

"She's in more trouble than you could imagine, the geth landed a full strike force on the planet, the covenant are trying to repel, however the odds are against them. The closest you can get is by the Fallen Soul, she's a covenant cruiser that got knocked from orbit, she's on the ground, you can land there and deploy, but I don't know what good it'll do you."

Shepard acknowledged.

"Thanks for the intel, but I need to ask, how was the fight?"

"They had 250, we had 25, but we were more than a match, there's little left."

"Good to hear Admiral, the UCAF will be here soon, don't worry."

The admiral smiled and saluted.

"Good luck commander."

XXXXX

The Normandy appeared from the skies, its engines blaring right behind it, and it made a graceful arc through the ash blotted sky. The Normandy made its way through the fields of fire and headed for the downed cruiser, the small frigate was dwarfed by the sheer size of the cruiser, but none the less it set down on the ground.

In the hangar bay the scorpion-90-MBT crawled from the hangar and rolled out, it was soon followed by one Warthog gauss mounted assault vehicle, and one standard LRV. They headed out from the Normandy and drove through the blood coloured dirt, the entire team had been pulled for this assignment.

Shepard was on the scorpion with all of the Spartan team, they headed in a bee line for the base, but as they approached. The skies were ignited as a frigate landed a full platoon with walkers.

"Look sharp people, we've got hostiles." Shepard yelled.

The scorpion had shields as well as the hogs; however there was the fact that there were more than 6 walkers in the same spot did nothing to ease their minds. Shepard barrelled the scorpion to the left and began strafing their positions with the main gun; she also fired the anti-infantry grenade canister into the platoon, effectively wiping out a good portion.

"Commander, look out, enemy aerial fighters." Ash reported.

Shepard turned her attention to the shapely objects on approach; Shepard turned the barrel of the scorpion up and changed the case to an AA round. The shell propelled at ½ the speed of light and impacted upon a handful of the fighters, the scorpion was never designed for dealing with aircraft so it would make sense that trying so was not wise.

Shepard, put the scorpion through its paces as it ran by the large amounts of MA rounds, the geth weren't exactly hard to hit, however inside a tank that could only go to 150km/h it wasn't the best thing to be driving.

The hogs scattered about, catching a another wave of fighters in a crossfire, the numbers dropped significantly as the combined firepower of gauss rounds and 50cal Vulcan Accelerator Repeaters mounted on the LRV.

The convoy managed to pull away from the battle, they headed to the dig site without pause, through the winding ruins of the highways and the well paved roads, the team ended up in a valley, one that was crawling with more geth, but also something else.

"Enemy units are ahead commander, there's a lot of them, and something big…" Ash only ended as her hog suddenly backed away.

A large blast and there was a crater where Ash's warthog would have been if she hadn't jumped the gun at that moment, Shepard and the others got sight of the immense geth unit. It stood at the equal size of a scarab; the unit was large enough to get their attention alright.

"Garrus, take your hog to remove its leg joints, if it overloads enough we'd have a clear shot, Ash cover him, I'll deal with this from above." Shepard said.

The team acknowledged, and then proceeded to taking on the Geth Goliath; Shepard took the scorpion to the top of a ridge that was on its ventral flank, she could hit the core from the mid-level and avoid being picked off from the ground.

The large geth walker did anticipate this tactic and brought the troops to guard the mid-level of the ridge. Shepard had dealt with enough simulations and constant battles to know how to deal with these problems, she brought the main gun to bear on the infantry, and then focused the turrets on the infantry on the ground, and she ranged the shots and brought a hammer down on them like nuts.

The first few waves were simply defence while the rest were a rear guard, the rocket troops proved the greatest worry, but they were easy pickings, especially for Shepard. Once she blew past the remaining resistance the scorpion came level to the mid-section, exactly then Ash and Garrus had managed to bring the walker into an overloaded state.

Aiming the main gun, Shepard locked in with a single AP slug, the large 10kg anti-armour round buckled the surface of the armour and punched a distinctive hole on the surface, and it was enough to see the core. Shepard fired again, and a third time, just to be sure, then she received a heads up.

"Commander, get clear, the thing's about to go." Ash yelled.

The hogs had already made their way from the belly of the walker and were both heading to the exit tunnel to the main site, Shepard followed right behind them as the walker detonated. The explosion from the Goliath walker shook the region, even at the dig site.

"We're almost there commander, there are friendlies up ahead, we're moving in." Ash reported.

"Received, proceed ASAP, I'll catch up." Shepard replied.

XXXXX

It took exactly 2.5 minutes when Shepard arrived, and she was not surprised by the outcome of the battle, Ash's hog had been upturned and Garrus's was parked over by the entrance to the dig. There was a pandemonium of problems, the geth were en masse to the base of the dig site, and the remaining defenders were heavily outnumbered.

Shepard decided to even those odds, bringing in the scorpion, she began to clear a path to the dig site, using the main gun, she blew through the infantry close to the entrance of the tunnel, and then she began a sweep close to the lines of the remaining defenders.

Once completed the sweep she began to move in, and as that happened, Ash and Garrus's teams managed to regroup and defend. They ended up exactly where they should have been, at the entrance to the dig site.

As Shepard exited the scorpion with Spartan team, they were greeted by the defenders, a young marine in his teens saluted. "Ma'am, Corporal Adrian Shepard of the 91st UCAF Colonial defenders, or what's technically left of us."

"Oh… wait, your name is Shepard as well?"

"Yes, why do ask?"

"I'm Commander Ellen Shepard of the N7 marines." Ellen replied.

The rest of the team arrived and were amused by the confusing situation; they couldn't help but wonder how the two were even there.

"Wait, your mum wasn't Adriana Shepard was it?" Adrian Shepard asked.

"Yes why?" She replied.

"Just that, my father was her brother."

"Oh, so that explains it, hang on; your dad was John Shepard?"

"Yeah, and I know, he's been MIA for well over 10 years."

"Wow, never thought I'd meet my own cousin out here." Ellen replied.

"Well that makes two of us, so what are you here for?"

Garrus decided to interrupt. "Can we just get on with this?"

XXXXX

After their introductions, they entered the facility; Adrian had acquired the security passes for the entire facility, and for good reasons. He was now leading them into the secure reaches of the base, and into the heart of the working forerunner structure, there were plenty of things to be on the lookout for and including the odd geth drone.

They arrived at the lifts where Adrian accessed, they were sent to the lower levels where the scientists had uncovered a few weeks back. When they arrived, they were greeted by a figure suspended in a wave of bluish light, where lightning was arcing around her.

"Help me, please." She cried out.

"Professor T'soni?" Adrian asked.

"Oh Corporal Shepard, it's good to see you, I thought you were on the surface holding the defensive lines?"

"I was, just that we were saved by my cousin, Commander Ellen Shepard, and my closest relative."

"Oh, it's good to meet you; however I'm still stuck in the forerunner containment field."

"Right, well we'll just have to find a way to bypass it." Adrian said.

Shepard and the team headed off and in search of a means to get to the professor before something happened, their search was interrupted by some geth entering from a mine shaft, Adrian dealt with the shaft by lobbing a grenade from his MA9A. Shepard dealt with all the troops that remained, and then the rest of the team cleaned up.

They continued to search for the means of bypassing the security door, and then an idea came to Tali and Kale as they worked their magic around a mining laser, the drill hadn't been active in a while, and the access codes needed were missing.

Kale worked his magic and soon the large mining laser started up, it bore a hole into the floor, which revealed another entrance that took them behind the barrier. Shepard headed in first followed by the rest of the team, they arrived at a lift like pad with an anti-gravity tether attached.

"Well at least this should work." Ellen said.

The lift went up and behind the console to where Liara was being held, they approached and Liara noticed them arrive.

"Amazing, how did you manage to get past the shield layer?"

Adrian answered for that.

"We used the mining laser down below to cut across, and then just used the lift."

"I see… Well could you get me down from here now?" She asked.

"Okay just hold on a moment." Adrian said.

He walked over to the console and brought up the control locks, the forerunner language icons and data lines spread about until he located the security buffers. It was then that the energy field holding Liara went down; she gracefully landed on her feet and said.

"Thank you, you can't imagine how hard it is to stay locked in that position for a few days."

Shepard decided that it was best to ask now.

"Liara, I'm commander Ellen Shepard of the UCAF and Council Spectre, there was a recent incident that sparked the geth from attacking all human colonies across the Traverse and we know that a turian spectre named Saren Arterius was involved, however there's also reason to believe that you're mother Matriarch Benezia is also involved in aiding Saren."

Liara was visibly surprised and shocked.

"My mother is in helping in start this war, but I don't understand, I had not seen her since over fifteen years ago."

"Well now is the best time to start seeing her soon, because she's being calling some of the shots from the dark, and things aren't looking up for us people." Ash said.

"Now, no need for that, if Liara is confused or unsure, then that's her reaction, she can't be rallied to her mother or Saren." Kale defended.

It was then that the cavern began to tremble, the roof shook from whatever was happening.

"Normandy to Commander, please respond!" Joker yelled.

"What is it Joker?"

"We've got a geth capital bearing right on your ass, and its firing everything it can at the base, we're already intercepting but they aren't slowing, you have to get out now. We're going to try and use the trans-light grid to bring you aboard, get outside."

"Roger that Joker, people we better get our asses out of here as soon as possible." She said.

"I'll get the lift." Adrian said.

Once on the lift they began to ascend into the top chamber, the gravity lift ended, but the team was interrupted by an annoyance. A krogan and a squad of batarians along with a dozen geth entered to confront them.

"Surrender the asari or don't, it doesn't really matter." He said with a smirk.

Ellen replied.

"How about we just walk on before this place gets blown to shreds and deal with this outside."

"Sounds tempting, but the boss said to bring her back or not, never needed the details. So what's this going to be?"

That was when another voice stated.

"How about you die and I avenge my brothers?"

The krogan battlemaster turned about only to be decapitated by the cloaked figure in armour, the figure then pulled two plasma repeaters and blast half a dozen guard and batarians. And then Shepard and the others ran into battle, they joined the mysterious figure and beat back the remaining forces of Saren.

And then before anyone could ask the figure who it was, the caverns began to shake more violently.

"Let's clear this place now!"

They ran through to the ground level and headed through the lobby, and once clearing the lobby they ended outside where the Normandy was coming in for their extraction. The cruiser on approach had been destroyed and was currently smoking only a few thousand meters away, but it still wasn't safe to be outside.

At least they weren't dead….

XXXXX

"Good timing commander, any longer and I would have to be calling in for a new ship, considering that the Normandy wasn't built for swimming in lava." Tanya joked as she materialised on the conference desk.

The table had been set once more, this time for a full crew meeting; there they had their newest addition Liara, who was still going through the recent course of events. But then she looked up and noticed the AI with surprise.

"Tanya, you're here? I thought Duran had you stationed at the Crystal Lake Memorial for the Aspire." She said happy and slightly puzzled.

"Ah, yes, that he did, I left only a week ago under new orders, the new SR-1 frigate was being launched and in honorary respects to all the UNSC and UCAF, they sent me along to join the ship." Tanya explained.

Liara smiled. "It's good to see an old face again."

"Likewise Dr T'soni." She replied.

"So you two knew each other?" Shepard asked.

"Long story commander, Liara was aboard during our trip to Reverence and she was aboard the Few and None during the war, so it was hard not to bump into each other at times. Besides she was working on Anomia during the war, and I was sent to help her learn about the UCAF and its allies."

"Oh, so then who's this guy in the long coat and stealth armour?" Thom asked.

Tanya looked at the large hulking figure with bent knees and motionless body; she almost laughed her pixels off.

"Is that you Ronomoree? I thought your mother told you not to join the spec ops?" She said motherly like.

The elite suddenly removed the cloak and his stealth sheets; his face was much like any other elite, exception that his helmet was more to an officer and his armour a regular. The sign of the spec ops, no one should ever forget.

"Rana had never said you'd stop pestering me over joining…" He replied annoyed.

"Well then welcome Ron, it's been far too long since I saw you as a pup." She teased.

The elite seemed rather neutral to the smart comments of his old godmother.

"So what bring you here to Therum?" Ellen asked.

The elite stood up from his spot and laid down a small projector disk.

"This is what I was looking for."

An image of the UCAF Aspire, it had also a definite ghost form of the large ship that attacked Eden Prime, but the thing was, the image was from 35 years ago. The crew was uneasy, Ellen suddenly felt as though this went deeper than just a simple coincidence.

"What is that?" Ellen asked.

"An encounter with an unknown entity that should have remained unknown, I can't even believe that some records of the incident even remain." Tanya replied.

"Well here it is the monstrosity that devastated the Aspire in the Sigma one incident over 30 years ago." Ron stated.

Ellen looked to Tanya, she was a mix of colours, pink being the most common, she looked like she had seen a ghost.

"There was a battle a few years back during one of our secret operations, the turians were in a power race with the UNSC and UCAF, and they were getting desperate, however their blatant disregard to the dangers of attempting to locate this power led others to find it as well. The geth didn't appear now, they returned over 35 years ago when the UCAF was recovering, they tried to get to the installation before we destroyed it, but they were too slow, Karl and so many used their last resort plan and destroyed the installation, it and them were both gone, we believed that the mystery ship was caught in the blast, and such we never went looking for it."

"But I don't get where that is."

"That Commander is halo." Tanya said ominously.

"A Halo? You mean the super weapons that the forerunners used to exterminate the flood?"

"Yes, and that was 15 years after the first contact war, the UCAF never believed that there would be any power that would attempt to reactivate it, but one tried, the geth arrived to attack, and that thing was responsible for a black out. The Aspire was caught in a large energy blast and damaged to heavily; Karl ordered me to abandon ship and activated the Nova to remove all threats at once."

"So my grandfather did die…"

"Yes, I'm sorry to say that Karl along with the installation were both vaporised." She said solemnly.

Shepard at least got some closure to her father's sadness, and to why her mother never spoke of what happened, but there was honour that ran in the family's name and it still lives. Shepard could only ask.

"So, the geth attacked in the past as well, why didn't the council react to this fast enough?"

"They did, they knew that the geth were already back in the galaxy, they just refused to believe that the UCAF had any evidence to provide to the public, because they would both be black lined for trying to reach Halo and trying to stop the council, it would have ruined public relations badly."

"So, now what do we do?" Ron asked.

"We head for our next goal, if the geth are on the front, then there's a possibility that Saren is too, we're going to Zhu's Hope, there we should be able to deal with whatever's happening, and also hopefully save the colony." Shepard said.

They agreed, the next target was Zhu's Hope.

XXXXX

As the ship was en route, they stopped by the 4th supply fleet to get the ship restocked and prepared for the assigned assault on the planet, and also to get their new equipment. Tanya had managed to get in the new suits from Hyperion, all the new Class VII energy armour and some tactical support.

The UCAF had granted the use of the new MKX-01A Mobile Assault Frame, Ian was to pilot the suit for tactical support for the team.

As they walked out into the hangar they were also greeted by a new recruit, a guy named Verner.

"Sir- I mean Ma'am, Corporal Conrad Verner, reporting for duty!" He saluted.

"Okay, why have you joined us?" Shepard asked the new soldier.

"I got promoted for my efforts to locate and destroy an enemy column on the Nova Straits; they said I was bold enough so they sent me here." He replied.

"Okay and you're to fill in for Private Jenkins, great, well at least let us welcome you aboard Corporal, I'm Commander Shepard and this is the Normandy and you will be part of the team missions from now on." She said.

"Yes ma'am, understood." He said happily.

"Kaiden please escort the corporal to his quarters and please get him some new armour." She said.

The team moved along to get their new Class VII armour from Hyperion; they were stacked sideways and had their numbers and types.

The package was then taken from there to the ship, the transfer being completed smoothly, however there were some extra pieces for the crew, more specifically Tali and Kale.

Back on the ship, they opened the suits, Spartan team didn't need the suits as their MKVII were still better off, Shepard was going through her own, which was a combo of the MKVI recon helmet, and a MKV security chest plate, along with recon shoulders.

(Mix and match from all generations!)

"Well this is awesome." Ash said lifting her phoenix pattern air assault.

"Yeah, never thought the UCAF would pull this much for one team…"

"So what did Garrus and the others get?"

XXXXX

(End guys…)

Well it was an awesome ride while it lasted, but I need to take another amount of time off.

But I'll let you guys decide what the others:

Kaiden

Conrad: LOL

Garrus

Wrex

Liara

And your choice of character

XXXXX

Love to all of you!


	6. Chapter 6

CH6

XXXXX

A stardust memory...

XXXXX

The Normandy had arrived in system, and with a large force of allied UCAF ships, the 5th fleet led by Admiral Nicholas Grey, an old family friend to the Shepard's. Ellen was happy to finally meet with a family relative, either than her cousin.

Adrian was hopping about with shock trooper armour on and exercising in the training room, he had other members of the crew aiding him in training. Wrex was in the lower hangar eating something with a lot of meat, and Garrus stalking about with testing new equipment.

Verner being the newest member had the greatest difficulty trying to get used to the altered training periods and crew members, he joined the team with enthusiasm and with vigour. The UCAF had made sure to get him on the team, only for odd reasons, especially since that Commander Shepard was a war hero of the Blitz some years back.

Shepard headed off to the hangar, there the team was gathered, Ian and Selena sitting on some crates, Ian testing his powers for his older sister, and Selena resting on a field of biotic power. They were being watched by Jovi and Dominic and Alex.

The team seemed relaxed, Alexis was happily smiling at the siblings, she looked about with her white eyes, and they seemed serene and also warm. Shepard heard of the god like being, Vincent of Foresight, but she had never imagined actually meeting a descendant of the man, Alexis was near god like, if possible for her, in retrospective terms of power were greater than anything alive.

Yet instead here was a woman who was Spartan, and immortal, and caring, loving and happy, even after years of service as a vindicator assassin. Shepard walked on.

XXXXX

Arriving at the armoury, Shepard suited up, her new Crusader MKV was prepared and ready for use, the suit was a replica of the Spartan MKV from the war, but this new suit was refurnished and made with the MKIV chest plate, though shaped for more female operatives of the Spartan forces.

She suited up, stepping into a gel layer dispenser the neural points activated across the nano skin fibres and relayed information across to the CIT (Central Information Tag), essentially a neural tag. The suit came on with a few of the smaller pieces and then the more complicated equipment, it took about 15 minutes to get the suit on, and another 15 getting the armour, and then 15 beginning the start up.

Once everything checked out, Shepard exited the changing room to be greeted by all members in armour, including Verner. Wrex wore a massive helmet with the death mask symbol of the head hunters, Wrex seemed to appreciate the deadly efficiency of the Spartans during the war, and their demoralising armour.

The other members had arrived with their armour on, exception to all non-human members, most had the UCAF armour attachments and additions to their suits. Garrus in a type of recon armour, Liara in a ranger class suit and Tali wearing modified EVA armour with Kale in standard adept class.

"Commander, we're ready for deployment, where do you need us?" Jovi asked.

"We're going to planet side, the fleet is ready to take the planet back, and we're leading a spear head to Zhu's Hope, the colonists had been reported to be fighting, however the colony had been unable to contact the outside for some reason. We're to secure the colonists and secure a line for the fleet to blast away at the unwanted company. We have covenant allies on the ground so be sharp." She briefed them.

They all nodded, this was going by the book.

XXXXX

Kale and Tali were never to be more than 100m apart, and Kale refused to leave her range in the field, as she was still part of his family, and Rael Zorah was by law his surrogate father, who held him responsible for his younger sister.

The two were in the nearest MAAT-140- Wolverine, the MAAT was attached to the Pelican-HDT255- the transport was a newer variant as it was made during the war with extended wings and extended rear hatch. The transports were now re-purposed for the transport of an armoured anti-air unit.

The position down, and an APC-499- Razorback was carrying the majority of the team, with some extra marines, a squad of marauders and vindicator assault teams were attached to the unit.

On the third transport, the warthogs and mongooses had been lined in rows, enough to launch a forward assault on a planet, which is what they were doing. Verner and Ash with Kaiden were leading the transports.

The final Pelican had a armoured Scorpion MBT, the only member aboard being Shepard and the gunner named Cody. The tank had been given to them for the field use in times of need, and also the fact that the ship had another 3 more.

The Normandy passed to the main fleet, a com came in from the Flagship, Flight of Icarus.

"Icarus to Normandy, the fleet is on deployment in about a few more moments, the covenant has already deployed a stealth force around Zhu's Hope, you have a window along with our forces, the other colonies are our priority, and you know where you need to go." Grey' said.

"Roger that, we'll be sure to report once we clear the colony."

"And if not, then we can nuke the colony from orbit." Joker said.

"Thanks for the mental image, now if you don't mind, we begin, in 3...2...1..."

XXXXX

On the planet the colonies were smoking in the sun, burning cities, the ruins speaking of desperate fighting, the geth forces were still unloading; all seemed soon to be completed, on the skyway the geth ships patrolled.

One frigate headed over to the nearby ruins, it was deploying more troops, and then the loud thunderous noise of a MAC seemed to change the scene quite rapidly. The divine piece of sound impacted upon the purple hull of the ship, the round passed through and slit the ship in two.

Then the geth began looking to the skies, and then hundreds of lights appeared, one geth unit 0201201201212 looked at the skies before it began to brighten, it was as if hundreds of suns now appeared.

The geth processed the information of the shell as it realised, it was dead...

The subsequent explosions vaporised the geth and everything surrounding it, the prothean skyway was suddenly lit up by a endless sea of weapons fire and explosions. The retake of Zhu's Hope had begun.

XXXXX

The barrage ended in a matter of moments, hundreds of powerful MACs had fired at their most precise shots to remove easy enemy positions, and then there were the thousands of MD rounds from the corvettes that began to sweep across the colonies.

The the drop-ships and fighters rained from their ships, the air was lit by AA and HEATs, the pelicans dodging the enemy rounds. The drop-ships made their way to the ground where a team of ODSTs and ADSTs were gathered, the advanced shock troopers were effective when put together for a single operation.

The drop-ships didn't even land; they simply disengaged the mag clamps and sent the vehicles on the ground at rapid speeds, hogs and tanks alike drove down the edge of the road where the troops were gathered.

Shepard controlling the tank, left the driver position and walked out, she saluted the CO, who in likewise returned the salute.

"Welcome commander, we've secured the area for you, the main lines are far from the main colony as far as possible, but there's still a problem, the geth have a significant force attacking the colony, seeing as we can't deploy extra forces to help, the admiral asked us to bring you this." The CO presented a small hand held device; he attached it to her wrist and explained.

"This new GLD, guided laser designator was made for this, it also has a guided missile system, if you need to clear out a bunker, just call it in through this, we're also able to help, but only when you really need it. Good luck commander." The CO said.

XXXXX

The colony came into view, the geth as well, the ants grew in shape and size as the transports hit the main highway, the geth noticed the approach of the teams, the geth took firing positions. The Scorpion headed forwards, and then the Armatures began to hit the heavily armoured and shielded tank.

The scorpion went under reconstruction since its initial launch, this variant included some rather surprising additions, such as the twin anti-armour cannons, the 150mm cannons bucked as the tank fired, the rounds blasting the first armatures and hitting the rear guards.

The geth brought out another wave of troops, rockets pinged off the shields, and then the scorpion fired its devastating AIS rounds, the shrapnel rounds blowing apart the troops with ease. The tank rolled over the remaining enemy troops.

The column headed onwards as they broke through the lines, the enemy geth tried to kill them but found nothing to stop these war machines. Shepard pulled the turret to fire once more, striking a geth drop-ship and sending it spiralling into the enemy troops.

The geth retaliated in numbers, but that didn't stop the teams from advancing to the colony. The trip wasn't eventful as they breezed by the enemy. They arrived at the front doors of the colony, the massive doorway was open and a large enemy force was jarred inside.

"Clear them out and secure the garage, contact the Normandy to land at the space port, we'll deal with the remaining geth here." She ordered.

"Roger that commander, relaying orders." Tanaya replied.

Shepard stepped from the armour, her boots crunching the dirty floor and wrecked shells and frames of the enemy, she headed on to the doors. The colonists who were guarding it were dead, she hit the elevator, the massive cage doors to the lift opened, and she waved to the others to follow.

The squads exited, leaving only 1 squad to hold back as the rest headed on, the marauders watching the rear, as they entered. Ash and Kaiden with Garrus headed first into the colony with a squad, Shepard and her own squad followed behind, the Spartans and the main team headed on to the roof, they would climb through an entrance way on the other side.

As they all arrived to the end of the ground level, they exited the lift and was greeted by more ash and blood, the geth were thorough, the teams were greeted by the grizzly sight of more dead bodies of the colonists, the only difference was the mass of huddled bodies strung up and violated in gruesome ways.

Tali nearly threw up as she entered with Kale.

"Keelah... what, why did they do this?" She asked in a mortified tone.

The impaled corpses of the people strung up, not with dragons teeth, as the UCAF named, but what seemed like torture devices, hastily set up. Shepard doubted that any of the colonists knew anything, but something didn't sit right.

"Come on, we need to locate the heart of the colony, I'm sure that the geth are going to bring in more than just this." She said.

The team headed on, the smells of ash and decay still ripe, they took a spiral staircase down to an open corridor, which then led them to the centre of the colony. And to what the centre of the problem was.

Upon arriving, they were greeted by masked marauders in armour; they signalled Shepard and asked confirmation of friendlies.

Once then, they headed on in, the troops were greeted by a older man, who seemed to be in control of the situation.

Shepard saluted.

"Commander Shepard 5th fleet and special tactics and reconnaissance." She introduced.

The man responded with a military like posture, he might have been an old service veteran, but she wasn't too sure.

"Fai Dan, ex commander of the UCAF 124th, and retired, it's good to see a friendly face for once." He shook her hand.

"So I guess that this is the centre of the colony?"

"Yeah, Zhu's Hope, or hoped, the situation was getting pretty grim, many of our fellow colonists haven't had the luxury of a break yet and you can imagine what that's like."

"What's your status here?"

"Almost better than before, but we've lost control of the lower regions and the control centre of the complex below, the geth keep pushing in, I doubt that your repulse of the enemy in the lower levels had done much. They'll be back, as usual." He replied grimly.

"Well, anything we can do to help with that?" She asked with a grin.

"Now that you mention it, the geth have a jammer on the lower levels as well as the control pad for the dispensers. We'd like it if you could get control back for those critical systems, it'd be much appreciated. But there's also one other thing I'd need to mention, the science corporation, Exeo-Gen, they've got a lab on level 9, but there's been no one from the place, and it's said something happened prior to the attack."

Shepard had a gut feeling something was definitely happening.

"Thanks for the help, we'll see to those and investigate what Exeo had been doing."

"Thanks and good luck commander." Fai Dan replied.

Shepard and the squad headed on, she called the others to come down, and leave a single squad of marauders to guard the tanks and one to guard the colony. Things were happening and she needed to know what.

XXXXX

Shepard went and dealt with all the problems including an insane man who had hidden himself in the lower catacombs of the refinery of the water purification plant underneath the colony. He had been an employee to the Exeo Gen Corp for years; however what he revealed about their methods had gotten Shepard concerned.

What might a multi-billion credit organisation be doing on a planet of human colonists? She wasn't sure, but the indication from that man had her guessing that there was nothing good about what was to come from this whole situation.

Shepard pulled away from the hangar, the Normandy had relocated there and dispatched additional reinforcements, and two more squads of UCAF marines guarded the hangar and with automated turret drones.

Tali had managed to appear with Kale and a combat drone of their own, Tali called the drone Gaia, after her old Valancien friend named Gaia from school. She loved that Fenris, she never saw her friend after that, but she remembered the name.

The Fenrisson race was deadly and powerful, especially those of the hunter clans, that was why she named her four legged hunter drone after her old friend. The combat units searched about as they all headed to the lower levels, and as they reached 6 that were when things went wrong, the lifts stopped.

As Shepard exited the lift she was greeted by nothing, the room was empty, the level seemed void of all things green or blue or anything either than the shades of grey and gunmetal black. She headed on with her squads, the Spartans making their trip in half by taking two alternate routes.

However they all intersected at the middle joint, the main centre of the colony, where there was more than just a fancy view of the facility.

"Keelah what is that?" Tali asked.

They all arrived at the centre on level 7, it took another 5 minutes to find a staircase and locate the end, here a green skinned statuette of a woman like being, with her branches that grew out in all directions. Though the middle shape of the statue came to life, or it was already alive.

All the coverings of the living flora retracted, they revealed a woman, of types, she was green and silver and she looked about, and then stared at Shepard.

"Are you friend or foe?" She asked.

Shepard replied. "I'm someone here to help, I heard that there was an attack launched here, but I had no idea why."

"The being of flesh like that of your friend…" She pointed at Garrus. "…arrived sometime before, when I slumbered, he awoke me and asked about the cipher, the point in which the fall of the protheans at the hands of the dark ones had returned. I answered though through a compromise, he gifted me… this."

A branch closed down and revealed an egg sack, it opened in flush of liquids, and an asari popped out, her green emerald skin differing from the opaque colours of many of her kin.

"This one had helped in my understanding of the galaxy…"

That was when Liara recognised the face patterns of the asari that had been hatched from the egg.  
"Shiala!" Liara called.

The cloned asari didn't seem to notice her, but a scrutinising face of the mystery plant lady seemed to spring a reply.

"This one is part of the one you call Shiala, however she is not the original, she is stored elsewhere. She arrived with the one called Saren, a kin alike to the one you have beside you, he was prudent in unlocking the secrets of the great life binder and life preserver. However the one did not care for those specific items of knowledge, he had asked for the core of the ancient order, a means to an end."

"And that is the cipher?" Shepard asked.

"Yes, however as soon as our agreement had been fulfilled he ordered his mechanical monstrosities to remove me, however the ancients had still protected me and I summoned the power of the winds, and swept away those who dared to attack. But now I feel my power exhausted, years of isolation catching up."

"If Saren has the cipher then that means that things will be worse, I require the cipher in order to understand what the protheans had told me." Shepard explained.

The goddess of nature laughed a laugh that sent shocks down everyone's spines.  
"Foolish mortal, do you honestly believe that the protheans could have imprinted the images of time in your heads, their minds were only conduits for the true knowledge, what you had witnessed Shiala had already given to me. It was ironic how they only foresaw destruction at their height."

"If the cipher isn't what you say it is, then what is it?" Shepard asked.

"It is a record from the forerunners on what the Reapers were, and what they brought upon the galaxy when the enlightened ones died. They heralded the name Reapers from the light ones, the forerunners when their civilisation discovered the Array."

"What array?"

"The Conduit, the circuit to the galaxy, a super luminal means of communication and transportation, however this was lost as they were destroyed by the cleansing of darkness." She replied.

"Then how are you alive?" Shepard asked.

"Because I came into existence in the protection of my home, this facility was to populate for myself and only four others, however my companions had long since perished, they gave me my final instruction, to warn you."

"Me, warn me from what?" She asked.

"The coming dangers of darkness and of another threat, however you can ask me later, your journey is still fresh and there are greater challenges ahead." She replied tersely.

"What sorts of challenges?"

"I cannot say, not now, but you may have the cipher and the one who can aide you."

A large orange sack opened up in front of them, a figure in black combat leather dropped to the ground, her figure tired from the entombment of the being.

"What happened?" The asari asked.

Liara went over to her side.

"Shia'la, are you alright?"

"Liara? What are you doing here, this place isn't safe." She replied breathlessly.

'I came with help, the colony lost contact and this being had stated of what happened."

"You know I do have a name, which reminds me, I am called, Thalesia, the avatar of nature." She stated.

"Oh, so suddenly nature can talk back?" Ashley asked.

"Yes."

"Well how's that possible, you're a plant, and not like the ones on Valance or Tempres or even Regis." She replied confounded.

"Well those places seem wonderful, however the ancients created me through nature, and that is what I shall remain, so please, hurry off and leave this place, and warn those of the Exeo Gen to never come here again, and please send my regard to Master Foresight."

"The Forerunner Inheritor?" Alexis asked.

"Yes, my overseer, please tell him to find me and please tell him to recover me, I do miss him." She said disheartened.

"Okay, so you're some kind of related to a god like being, I'll just pass the message on." Shepard said as she left.

It didn't take long before she resurfaced to the colony and encountered all the marines and colonists were waiting, she had to warn them not to ever go down the facility until a detachment of UCAF marines arrived and an Advent capable of talking to the goddess, as loosely as the term was.

They headed back to the Normandy where they had to speak with the council and alert the fleet.

XXXXX

Normandy

"So hot plant ladies with an army of cloned asari, great, I need to visit this chick later on, you know it doesn't seem that bad." Joker said.

"I'd rather not do that, considering she used the last batch of Exeo Gen scientists as plant fertiliser and I'd hate to image what that parasite thing she has can do to you, that was freaky when she stated of the graphical details of enthralling." She replied.

"Oh, okay then, I just wish I had the chance to meet her, she sounds..."

"Very important, with the obvious fact that she happens to be somehow related to the Forerunners." She interjected.

Joker paused and said.

"Okay, so bad idea, oh man, well there's plenty of flora out in the forest, and I'm sure that there's someone out there for you." He chuckled.

Shepard smacked him over the head, and left an obvious bruise, thanks to the plated armour and muscle enhancers.

She jogged her way down to the lower levels and to the com room, exactly where Nihlus once briefed the crew before the attack, she tapped on the controls to isolate the room, and then she activated the controls for the trans-light communication to the council.

The three councillors appeared.

"We have received your report; a most disturbing discovery of the Thalesia, the nature avatar is something we need to investigate and the claims of Exeo being involved in illegal activity on Feros. This still concerning that such a being exists however."

"Which is why the UCAF had been alerted and an advent is meeting with the being, Thalesia as we speak, Raiden Casus is meeting with her, and the revered inheritor is on his way here." She answered.

"Vincent of Foresight had actually agreed to meet with her?"

"Yes, which is why the colony of Zhu's Hope on Feros is now under the protection of the UCAF as of this day, and also the council may only send a representative as for the interest of citadel." She stated.

"This is unexpected; we assumed that this would have stayed within our interests until it was necessary to notify the forerunner." Councillor Maelon said uneasy.

"Well that's too late, the UCAF needs to protect those part of its heritage especially those with incredible power, the goddess Thalesia is needing protection so we have to give it, she's related to Foresight and that's enough to warrant concern." She attempted to sate the council's worries.

"That may be, however all things that result with significant changes or knowledge that concerns the council is required to be sent to us, beforehand commander." Valern stated.

"I understand councillors. I'll keep that in mind, is there anything else that I must know?" She asked.

"Nothing at the present moment, however there has been one sighting of Matriach Benezia on Noveria, at Lake Culhen, there has also been a report that the research station she was visiting had dropped outside of contact at Peak 15."

"The Peak 15? As in the flood outbreak of 2554? And the loss of Joseph of Black Ops?" She asked.

The cataclysmic event that had cost the lives of thousands due to the ignorance of the turian hierarchy, the council had never lived down the disaster when it occurred. Or the facts that the UCAF released the news into the public after 5 years and then had the public judge themselves upon the disaster.

The turian hierarchy had to live with the shame on their names, but that didn't stop future incidents from occurring.

Now after 3 generations it still haunted the council, none of the councillors were even remotely smug about admitting their fault to the people or the public and simply blamed unforeseen events and catalysts.

"Yes, that facility, that was the last report of the matriarch from security footage." Valern stated.

"Very well then councillors I'll have the Normandy head over to the facility as soon as possible." She replied.

With a nod the council images finished, Shepard walked off, only interrupted by Liara and her caretaker Shia'la, they were supposed to be trying to uncover the cipher and the records of what the protheans had witnessed from the forerunner installations.

"Sorry commander, we needed to see you." Liara started.

"Yes, the mind meld is required as soon as possible, the events in place are critical, we need to hurry before the threat of the reaper influences greater damage." She stated.

"I know, which is why we're going to do this in the medium chamber, the UCAF set those for Advents on board, I'm sure Tanya will allocate some privacy."

The woman appeared and said.

"That I will commander, the chamber is cleared for you to use, however Joker was playing ping pong when you were in the meeting. And it may smell like a bit of sweat, that and something else." She said.

"Just get us down to the chamber Tanya; I don't need a mental image." She replied.

XXXXX

Once inside the room, they circled together, Shia'la and Liara on either side of her, this was one unique technique to channel each mind into her own. Ellen hadn't seen such a method, however it was better than one on one.

The lower empath fields Shepard possessed from her Spartan bloodline had aided in channelling most of their thoughts into one. Shepard had some doubts that such a thing would work, but she knew the basic mental exercise and the means of expanding her fields.

Once set in place the two asari said.

"Embrace eternity."

XXXXX

Inside her mind, Shepard felt different, the mind of Shia'la was clearing things with the cipher and what was required in understanding the events that had been set into motion. They ended up in the place she had been in once before, it was much clearer now, the mind of the protheans, the long elongated body of one its eyes lowly glowing.

"If you have received this message then run, run from this place, our people our race, gone, the reapers, they have come, for us! And as we die their power grows, only if the guardians had remained, only if we had heralded their warnings, only if..."

The world changed to a place covered in mossy structures, but the ground was clean, the skies hazy red.

"I have found that the conduit is to be moved, the destroyers had yet to find us, I pray that the knowledge we gleamed from this artefact may save us from destruction. However this is wishful thinking in the passing of our deaths."

She now stood in the Dais, the chamber of Foresight, the planet was Reverence, the knowledge of the reapers and their threats, the knowledge now was sharp, and this was the mind of a forerunner.

"Tomorrow the dark ones shall approach from the Durtis cluster of the (light) Illuminant Segment. We cannot hold until it is ready."

"The Ascent of Judgement must be ready, as should the Advent Ascension, the mantle of life shall hold, the darkness shall wane." A powerful voice stated.

She could see the masked forerunners all armoured and elegant, this was a race that was to be revered, respected, and seen as godly.

The image changed finally to one last place, it was Anomia, the ancient Hazed Path facility that was discovered over 100 year ago.

"The reapers may have been purged, but we must remain vigil, the Array is complete, and now we are ready to defeat the coming storm shall the need ever arise. I pray to the light that this shall never come to pass, however there are things even beyond our control, may mercy grant peace to those who sacrifice."

The final image was that of the Array itself, she was standing here or wherever 'here' was, the earth being shifted to cover the massive array and the endless sea of drones toiling upon the mammoth construct. She couldn't believe that such a thing remained.

But then a fast forwards changed the shape of the world and soon, the array vanished…

XXXXX

Shepard awoke on her feet, she felt light headed but almost fine, she could see the others were just recovering as well. Liara shaking her head and tapping her temples and Shia'la calmly trying to understand what had happened, they recovered and Shepard stated.

"So what have we just learnt from the records?"

Liara was the first to reply.  
"The array, the conduit is what the reapers are after, however the events in place, this weapon, that the forerunners had during their conflict with the reapers. Does it have meaning to what is happening?"

"Most probably, but there was little record on any forerunner weaponry since the end of the Covenant war, and the last ones discovered was the super ship, Advent Ascendant, but that was destroyed when a Spartan team led a suicide mission, but the other one, I don't know, no one had any records of that ship." Shepard stated.

"This is quite troubling, we'll need to piece more of the puzzle together in the meantime rest and wait until we arrive at Noveria, once there, and we'll get some more answers and possibly a solution." Shia'la said.

XXXXX

The Normandy had no idea of what waited, or the fact that a greater evil still remained since the first contact war, that enemy older than time, and just as dangerous as the reapers…

XXXXX

Peak 15

Amongst the wreckage of his once great shell, the black armoured form of Joseph Black-06 remained, destined to seek out his purpose, but as he waited, he could hear the call the chanting of darkness. He wondered when his damned captor would answer him.

"So I return once more."


	7. Chapter 7

CH7

XXXXX

The Secrets of the Past

XXXXX

Horse head Nebula

Noveria

It was a short 3 day trip from Feros and the lady of the ancients, it was no surprise that she was later tamed by the forerunner advents and then tasked with rebuilding the devastated landscape that was Feros. The geth attacks were slowly and eventually snuffed out, however the fact remained, Saren was picking over the remains of the dead, and the remains of those lost was disturbing to say at the least.

The Normandy arrived eventually in the system and dropped in, landing in a graceful arc at the port, the same port that was rebuilt following the destruction of the old Noveria Facilities during the flood outbreak, it was later revealed in the aftermath that the entire planet had one continent that was buried under the mountains and snow was a forerunner structure.

The UCAF secured the region and went to work uncovering more of the ancient lands, it was discovered that the planet was once a thriving agricultural world, made as a garden world, however it was abandoned during terra-formation when the flood attacked.

The planet was left dead, until the UCAF bombarded its surface and released the heat to get the surface lively, the contained cells of bacteria and life was up and about, and soon it was alive. Noveria was now a garden world, one that the UCAF was glad to give to the council.

The only difference was that a significant force of UCAF ships kept watch over some parts of the planet due to the significance of each one. Regions had still standing forerunner ruins and facilities which had not been activated. The planet was also one of the most secure in the galaxy, yielding over 150 known facilities designed for the most critically dangerous and mysterious, only 25 facilities are ever active and the rest remain on standby.

The major corporations that work to produce effective pieces of technology and weaponry work here as well, though many are under the watchful eyes of the alliance and the council. However that hasn't stopped the past 4 recorded incidents from occurring.

Normandy touchdown as it arrived at port, the magnetic clamps holding tight as it set down, Shepard and her Spartan team along with Tali, Kale, and the others were to meet with someone special. It took mere moments as they packed their equipment and gear and prepared to leave the ship, Tali and Kale were somewhat sceptical about being on Noveria, and their father had warned them about the previous incident involving the geth and some history that was supposed to have been forgotten.

They left the ship, with Verner trailing behind with a forklift packed with things, they all walked up to security, and it was there that Shepard was greeted by a young Asian looking security guard, probably a marauder from UCAF academy grounds near Han systems.

"Greetings commander, I'm Major Sakura Matsumoto, I'm with local UCAF marauder colonial defence and security." Sakura introduced.

"I believe that my UCAF clearance card has been identified?" She asked.

"Yes, the command centre just cleared you, I came to deliver a special message from the Supreme Commander of the Vindicators, and he'd like you to receive this message before you enter the facility." Sakura said with seriousness in her tone.

Shepard and practically the entire crew was surprised, the Supreme Commander Miguel Grey.  
"Very well."

Sakura hit her Nova tool and brought up the message, it took moments as the image of the Supreme Commander appeared, his figure was about 7'1 and with shallow white eyes, he was considered the greatest of soldiers, and by record one of the best looking Spartans to have ever survived the war, and the best looking male officer by galactic records, for some odd reason. He addressed the crew in a straight manner.

"Commander Shepard I believe that you have arrived on Noveria, I have no doubt that you'll bring Saren Arterius to justice for the greater good of the galaxy. I do however wish to give you this message in the event that you are here for Saren though, it concerns your grandfather Karl-0221 the hero of Elysium. Under his last command to me, I was given this message should you arrive on Noveria."

The hologram picked out a holographic text document and began to read it.  
"To those who come after me, you have succeeded in making the journey to the place of his grave, seek me at the highest point in the lake, overlooking the mountains of Haven's Reach, it is there that it is honorary to wreath the memorial of my fallen brother, Joseph Black-06. If you do this in my place, you have my eternal thanks, as a note of wisdom: Look upon the darkness and the light, for I have walked the abyss and have found redemption."

The hologram finished and said.  
"To you commander I bid you good luck."

The image faded, and Shepard and her brother were baffled, this was the first time that they received a message from their grandfather, in fact this was the only message he had ever left them. Ellen wondered what he had meant about his brother though; she had to investigate this further when she went to Peak 15.

The major waved them in.  
"Good day to you commander, and good luck."

XXXXX

(For those who wished to know about the mysterious Joseph Black06.)

2571

His head was in pain, his body torn, he didn't know why, but this wasn't like death, it should have been painless, his synaptic responses should have shutdown, he should be dead. But no, this wasn't death, and now that he thought of it, death didn't have sterilised containers for transporting him.

He was in a ship, in someone's ship.

He looked at the cold ceiling, the emptiness they showed, the hums of death, this was no ordinary ship, this place, it was an ancient, a reaper. His flood synapses responded in moments, trying to break free from the container, those bastards, they were here. After the last 15 million years after their defeat, they should have never returned.

But no, they did and they were here to finish what they had started, and they were here to finish the last of the flood and the forerunners. They had to be stopped, his mutating body adjusted under his neural control chip, he began to slowly strengthen, but it was useless.

"Foolish organic stain, you're age has long since ended, the rightful gods of darkness must rule, you're time has already long since ended." A voice said to Joseph.

He roared out, as the flood's own voice and Joseph.  
"Be gone you damned spawn of void, you're nothing compared to the true power of the ancient gods, you are nothing to what I have stood, time and time again, I shall not die."

"Yell all you will pest, you're kind will perish in the end."

"I'll be here to see you try..."

XXXXX

Shepard walked down through the busy port; there were hundreds of people inside this transport terminal between the main complex and the ports. It was a good thing that the UCAF had a private transportation hub. It would get through the region with ease and there was no one beside quiet military personnel, being near everyone else the trip would have been nothing short of unbearable.

They headed to the main complex where the major corporations held most of the power; she doubted that there wasn't going to be mostly private security and mercenary guards over the entire place. The UCAF had been excluded inside the central centre as the Corps wouldn't allow it, they'd get scanned and most of their cargo and materials as well as sources would get confiscated.

It was then after years of harsh debate that the UCAF was made to keep all external threats out, while all internal issues were dealt with Noveria commission. It was rather simple that most of their problems were solved quite easily; however there was still the fact that things weren't always what some people claimed.

Internal affairs were rife with corruption and power struggles with certain corporations, Shepard knew because this wasn't the first time that a corporation had done something very stupid. The events with the Blitz had been part in due to the heads of 3 major arms dealers, who then turned rogue, all for the sake of money dropped to aiding the pirates of the Verge a lot of weapons.

The UCAF won the war, but the fact remained power to those who were willing to use it to their means, this was why the UEG and a number of System Government controlled worlds had created the Coalition to deal with corporate matters. It worked well, as no power was granted ever more to one corporation, it may have raised competitive rates on development and manufacturing of weapons and goods, but better that than possible corruption.

The transit arrived at level 1 of the Noveria complex; it hissed as it stopped outside of the platform, when they disembarked, they were treated to the sight of something amazing. It was a beautiful garden level centre with thousands of people wandering about.

Shepard hadn't been to as many busy capitals in the years but some of these were places that looked amazing, she was living on the citadel for some years knowing its people and such, however to stand on the surface of a world not in space was different. She enjoyed the sights and sounds as well as smell.

Hundreds of vendors and shops as well as large corporate buildings were set and strewn across the place; it was a good place to be. Though somewhat edgy at times, if you notice more closely to Noveria's situation it had its reasons. Armed guards patrolled and watched the centre like hawks, and each corporate building had a pair of guards at the front.

"So I take it that this is Noveria's heart?" Garrus asked.

"Yeah, real pretty, I'm sure no one would even notice the guns after a few weeks." Ashley commented.

"Okay, that's enough, we should probably head in. We need to get to the outer transportation level on B3." The council assassin Thom said as he pulled out his Nova tool.

The decided not to bother asking as many questions as to how he knew where to go immediately, but with his level of commitment to his duties it wasn't surprising to see that he was prepared. They followed the council raised Spartan to the lifts and down to the base level, the place where the transports and military hardware was usually kept.

They passed through corridors of hardened granite like walls and long passage ways of grey metal and even plate. Shepard doubted that any of those corridors had even real materials as such put into them; they were mostly there for decoration. The structural integrity would be routed to massive beams in the walls with iridium and titanium fixed in.

As they arrived at the front doors to the garage they were greeted by 4 armed guards.  
"Hold it; this is a strictly private garage under commission of Matriarch Benezia."

The team froze on the spot, if this was who was in control then it was obvious that these guards might have been…

"I have a licence under commands of the council itself that I have permission with any other personnel in my company to enter and exit at will as it states above all rules and priorities of the governments of the council races." Thom said showing the Council's seal.

The guards didn't know what to make of it, the chances that there was someone higher in power than a spectre had never been heard of. It took moments for the officer in charge to ID it and say.  
"Sorry for the inconvenience sir."

They stood away and let him pass, they continued on without being stopped. Shepard decided to ask.  
"You've got more power than most of the entire governments of council space put together?"

"Yes." He said stoically and moved on.

The group didn't even need a hint that he was uncomfortable being the son of a council member and being different than his mother; on top of that he was commissioned with the powers of the council at his hands and above if need be.

When they arrived in the garage, they were greeted by the sight of dozens of transports some of which looked as though they had been used recently. There were hundreds of compact containers and cargo crates; this was obviously where Benezia had her army.

"Damn, anyone bet that we're going to meet a lot of geth up there?" Jovi said as he poked his finger in some dry plasma fluids.

"This isn't good; if Benezia has an army up there we're screwed." Adrian said as he looked about.

"Keep it together people, we're talking about one Matriarch who's been brainwashed or possibly gone nuts, not a mad man with a planet destroying laser." Ash commented as she walked to the nearest Cougar APC.

Liara was not very verbal; Shepard noticed it in the asari as soon as she was on the ground. Though before she had the chance, her younger cousin was the first to step in, he tapped her on the shoulder and asked.  
"You okay?"

She was broken from her thoughts on everything that had happened in the past few days and she replied.  
"I'm fine, but I don't know, my mother, she had never always been there, but she'd never…"

"Don't worry, if we confront her, we'll do all we can to save her, no one is beyond redemption and no one is truly evil, there's always the fine line." He said to her in a comforting tone.

"Thank you, we better go." She replied gesturing to the team on the Cougar.

As Adrian walked by Ellen, she asked.  
"You know flirting with the witness tends to be against the rules."

"Hah you have to bring out the twins reference from PSG didn't you?" He replied with a smirk.

"Well couldn't help it, you know bending the rules?"

"Just get on the Cougar and head out Ellen I'm sure there's a world of trouble waiting for us."

"Heck, make that a galaxy of hell and back." She commented as she walked in.

The Cougar APC roared to life, its hydrogen fusion drives kicking in as it drove out of the garage at high speeds; they were on the road to Hadrian's Point. It was about 2.5 clicks from the Haven's Reach over look of the lake. It only took 5 minutes of driving and navigating to get to the road there, there weren't any actual obstacles, however when one did appear, Wrex dealt with it in his usual manner.

They arrived at the lake high point as they exited from the main road, rough in the very essence of things, and walked to the point on foot; the trek up the hill wasn't high. It was a slight slant to one side with some trees and a winding metal path. It was obvious that this was nothing more than a simple hill.

But that changed when they arrived at their destination.  
"Well we've finally made our pilgrimage for the dead ashes of my poor great uncle."

"You mean our poor great uncle?" Adrian corrected.

There was no response and the soldier asked.  
"What cat got your… tongue?"

They were on the hill, and by anyone's definition of hill, this wasn't one, and there was a reason why it was called Haven's Reach, the very lookout that watched over an entire lake. The point was over 500m high and had a mass equal to Everest on earth; the damned thing was not just overlooking the lake it was in the lake.

And on top of that, the place wasn't a mountain or a hill; it was a forerunner structure that went on top of the landmass. There were few words that could describe the sight before the team, but to sum it all up from everything that was going through their minds.

"Wow, now that is big." Verner said looking ahead.

"Okay, so why did granddad want us to go over there for?" Adrian asked.

"The trek was to the hill, and from here, there's nothing?"

"How are we supposed to get to the point, swim?" Ask asked sarcastically.

"I think he was expecting us to go by air, but seeing as he only gave the message when we arrived, we can safely assume he had another means of transport." Alexis said with a wave of her hands over the top of the hill.

The ground revealed a metal floor, the circular shape was a platform, and as soon as the adept Spartan waved her hands over the middle a holographic interface kicked in. The hardwired designed panel reacted with her powers and soon a light came active, it was a light wave gondola.

"Wow, guess granddad had a few neat tricks." Adrian said as he watched.

The gondola arrived in minutes and halted exactly where they waited, they boarded the transport and simply allowed Alexis to hit the switch, the transport would carry them from the hill to height of the massive structure ahead.

"So, why the entire cloak and dagger theme?" Ash asked Shepard.

"No idea, my dad never told me of this place and neither did Adrian's so it's a good guess that our families were never told about this place." Ellen replied.

"So what could possibly be on that thing to warrant such secrecy?" Garrus asked.

"What?" Adrian said.

"It's obvious that there's something there, the damned thing has a hidden panel that only forerunners could have known about and the fact that the place is guarded by shields and probably shield drones and the fact that it's under the name of the Shepard family. Doesn't that seem strange?"

"Not necessarily, I mean there's been something's I've seen that have been more complex than this, but yeah, not very strange, it's a memorial site isn't it?" Shepard asked no one.

"Okay so if this is for one single Spartan then I am impressed." Wrex stated.

Once the transport arrived at the platform entrance to the complex they found that the place was different, it was oddly changed from its simple forerunner hardened shape as there was a number of candles and tarps of white and faded cloth over the place. This place had been used recently, as there were still ignited candles and smells of smoke that seemed to permeate from the very structure.

"Okay why do I have a feeling that we aren't alone?" Ash asked.

"It doesn't make any sense; the platform had been abandoned for years hadn't it? And who could make it past the shields and security?" Adrian added.

They walked in, there was no real need to draw weapons, and if there was a threat they'd know about how to deal with it as soon as it came, but here there was nothing. They moved with ceaseless steps as they searched from the memorial, or shrine, or whoever now inhabited the small temple.

It took about another 5 minutes before they arrived at the scene of an open door with many wreathes and old photos and holographs of days long gone. There was images of hundreds of people some that all of them knew and others that only Shepard could identify.

They came to a stop as they entered the room, it was a little bit dimmed but still recognisable, this place was a core generator room for archives and records. It was also the place of the person who lived there. They came upon a table that sat in the way; it was metal and made during the UCAF wars, so it was over 50 years ago. That meant that someone decided to live their lives in absolute isolation for 50 years or there was remaining equipment that could be found here.

They walked to the centre of the massive chamber where there was something interesting siting in the midst of this old facility. It was a statue, made of Aethrenite; it was carved into a perfect form of the Spartan Alpha known as Himitsuki, the legendary first supreme commander of the UCAF.

Shepard decided to take a closer look at the statue, it's perfectly formed figure could make even the most detailed sculptors and machinery green with envy, someone had a lot of time on their hands. And it was only then that Shepard noticed the sword of the powerful Spartan was real, and detachable, she gently pulled it from its scabbard and was surprised to hear a sharp voice call out.

"Don't touch that… it's very hard to make one again." A tired voice said.

The team reached for weapons and turned to see a hooded man in a number of worn clothes, his figure was massive, and he was nothing short of a Spartan…

"Who are you?" Shepard asked.

"I should ask you the same question young lady, and you should probably leave this place, if you're here to remember the dead, then leave the memento at his feet and simply say the words, if not then just leave." He said with a weary heart.

Alexis suddenly noticed that there was something different about this man, not only was he physically a Spartan, she could feel his life force, it wasn't normal. This was… familiar, this couldn't have been, he had been dead for years.  
"Father?"

"Huh? You think I'm your father… and all this time I thought you'd never find me." He said to a ghost of his own past.

The man put his hands on his head and pulled back the raggedy hood of cloths, his face was clearly well chiselled to near statue like, his skin pale as snow, his eyes golden and green. This was a Spartan by birthright, this was an Alpha. And this must have been the husband of Lady Anya.

"I guess the past seems to find a way." He said with a grim smile.

He walked upright, his form still in the rags, he had some problems with his left leg, but in all and all, he looked at them with an unending gaze of exhaustion, he had never been able to rest or sleep during his war, and as such he had never found peace.

"Are you all going to simply gape or do have to introduce myself?"

Shepard recovered from the surprise first and said.  
"I think you better introduce yourself."

"I am, Joseph 989, Black06, I think you know me by default?"

"Okay, so now we're in the presence of a dead guy, am I the only one who thinks that being dead doesn't seem to stop Spartans?" Joker asked to the ceiling.

"Quit cloistering your thoughts boy, you'll wake the dead."

"Hah real funny Mr Dead Spartan back from wherever the hell the universe threw you." Joker retorted.

Shepard interjected.  
"I thought you died at Eta Halo?"

The look on the face of the once Spartan suggested there was more, but he didn't say it.  
"I did die on Eta, but I survived by a pure miracle, the flood."

The crew found that more and more disturbing, the flood helping? When did that start as policy?

"That can't be, the flood only infects and controls, and consumes, you don't look infected, but then again, you've had more than you're fair share of events."

"Ah yes, the warden systems, and the legendary Ascendant Justice, the operations that made me the man I am, and then I had Alexis… and before I could have known more of my child I died."

"You died, but you didn't and then never came to see me or mother?" Alexis asked.

"I couldn't Alexis, I can't, I'd be long dead before I ever got to see your mother again, not to mention in more pain than I can handle. Unless you didn't hear, your commander is correct in her terminology of the flood, I did become infected, but I retained control."

"What?" Liara asked she was horrified; she had been once part of a UCAF research team on Anomia which did studies in to the dead organisms of flood. If Joseph was correct then he was a living container.

Wrex and most of Spartan team drew weapons, they all knew the drill, and Wrex had been around in the first contact war to see firsthand what the flood did to one orbital station he was on when an outbreak occurred thanks to the turians, he didn't want to see that again.

"I think it's time you learnt the truth my dear children…"  
He pulled apart the rags that was part of his clothes and revealed a muscular like form underneath, just that it wasn't a fleshy form, it was chitin. His skin was a hardened bronze in colour with lines of black and tints of green, his hands in full view were metallic and his scars seemed to glow.

"So why do you think I never see Anya? Maybe it's because I should be dead, not a walking corpse with still an active mind." He stated.

Shepard drew her pistol and said. "So grand uncle, is this really you? If it is, then you know that the Warden protocol dictates action."

"I'd have expected nothing else dear child, which is why I live here, I have my reasons for never seeing you and my own daughter, but I decided that the only way I should live is to wait for my own redemption, for the mistakes I have made." He explained.

"Shepard, what do you think we should do?" Ashley asked.

There were over a million things going inside of her head, this was her grand uncle, the same man who saved thousands of worlds by stopping the flood, and then suffering an ironic fate as this? She couldn't tell if the universe had an honest sense of humour that didn't involve some sick twist of fate, but alas, this wasn't good… but this man, he was her only link to the past, and one that seemed sentient enough.

"Lower your weapons, I doubt that he'll attack." Shepard said.

"But…"

"Just do it Garrus, he's no saint, but neither are we."

They lowered their weapons and Joseph put his ragged clothes back on, he then said.  
"Your grandfather once said, 'There is no true evil, and never true good, all is bound by one or another for one reason, choice.' I am glad to see that you've lived as my brother taught your father to."

"So what do you intend to do now?" Shepard asked.

"Leave, I'm sure you're headed to the Peak 15 complex?"

"How did you know?"

"Because I was there decades ago, Saren took me from the ruins of the Eta Halo and had experimented on me. I managed to escape relatively intact, however he has something there, not flood, at least not that I know of, but it's there and it's alive." He said.

"So, if you know the way, then show us."

"Actually I can't just show you it, but I can do this…" He pressed a button on his wrist.

There was a flash of light before and then it had teleported from the forerunner structure to the next destination, they met the ground with a soft drop, the place that they were in was made entirely of ice, it was freezing outside, but it seemed the inside of the complex was insulated.

They were greeted by a voice.  
"So is this your family? Or am I missing something?"

An elite in silver armour and marked with the symbol of the mark of shame, her face hidden behind a modified ranger class helmet. Her spec ops status remained intact even after 50 years; this was Shipmistress Unarra Moremee, the white fang. (Those who've read of AoR will know this character off the bat.)

XXXXX

So yeah now we have an old friend from my previous story Age of Revelation, she's here to stay people, and top that with the fact that we're soon to get there… the point where Saren must face Shepard and the crew, but I've got a lot of special secrets in play, and as a thing or two I might add that there's another story coming out soon, as far as I know only Silverscale and a handful of others have submitted characters…

But for now enjoy this little cameo.

XXXXX

Time: 2596/1/17

Location: Unknown

/-Begin-/

It had been some time, frozen in the eternal embrace of near death, he couldn't tell if it had been days or years; however Cortana knew that time had passed, she had been awake for those years. And now it was time, she felt the light of the unknown grasp the ship…

The pull of gravity moved the ship; she began the emergency heat up…  
"Chief… I need you." She screamed.

He broke through the frozen chamber of his past incarceration, not wasting a moment; he grabbed the holo-tank and pulled her chip from the interface. The ship began to explode around him in a crescendo of light and shrapnel, he needed to get out.

Dodging the flying debris and reaching a sealed corridor, he picked up a loose flying grenade launcher, and fired on the seal, it exploded as he reached it. He flung himself outside and caught himself and set himself down on the lip of a broken section of the ship.

He looked up, he could see what was coming, it was light, it was… impossible

/-END-/

XXXXX

Yes and here's another one before I leave, this is for those who had yet to know of what happened to Karl and members of the Aspire SR-0 series.

/-BEGIN-/

In the dead of space he could hear the calls of his life, his childhood as a little boy and all the mischief he caused at the academy. And then one day a woman dressed in a long suit with blonde short hair and piercing blue eyes came, she asked him something in private.

"Have you ever wondered if there was someone else out there, wondering what it is like here?"

"Yes." He replied with an innocent smile.

"Do you wish to meet those like you?" She asked.

"Yes."

"So, you have no regrets?"

"Yes."

His head focused on his broken form, the Aspire had come to a dead, stop, he couldn't hear the others, they were here, but he couldn't see them. It was then that the ship continued on, into the haze of space around it. Slowly it reached the event horizon; its glorious and radiant light shining upon the Aspire, to what awaited the ship, only Karl would know.

/-END-/

XXXXX

(Here are some spoilers)

Adrian walked onto the Normandy, just as he had over 3 years before, when he was saved by Ellen on Therum, it was now 3 years later, and the Normandy SR2 was better than ever, it was a new frigate class rather than the old light frigate, which was just another designation for a prowler. He stepped on the new chromed flooring. The ship was made of recently developed Aethrinite, thanks to the forerunners databanks that the alliance had accessed.

Only the most recently launched UCAF naval vessels had received these upgrades, either than that, no one had seen the launch of the SR2, yet. Adrian pondered as to all that had happened, since he was named the hero of the Citadel, and his cousin the Hero of Humanity and the galaxy.

It was ironic, that she would die sooner than he would even though they were in the same room, the damned reapers would pay for their attack, and the collectors. He had spent the good part of 3 years training and recovering, and now it was time.

"Evi, is the ship ready?" He asked.

A holographic image of a woman in a custom skin of a CQC without the helmet and more aesthetics appeared, she smiled and reported nonchalantly. "All systems are prepared and operational, we're ready to launch as soon as Mr Moreau is finished flirting with me."

"Hey! I didn't even try… I swear." He said defensively.

"That was a joke, of sorts."

"GRRR"

"Okay enough with the loving couple routine, can we please get going?" Tanya asked as she walked in.

Tanya had changed since her time as an AI, as a request to the UCAF Hyperion Corps; she requested that she could use a bio-form from the development site. This body was more or less, human, it had the figure of Tanya when she was both living and AI, and she had Spartan abilities, as she was originally a Spartan.

"Very well, beginning departure from dock, Mr Moreau you have the con."

"Okay, let's get this baby rolling, everyone hold on, taking her for a run into the nearest star…"

"That's not funny Jeff."

"Ha, like you have a sense of humour…"

"Like you could ever stick it…" She retorted.

"Ouch."

XXXXX


End file.
